There are literally tens of thousands of search engines, but when you want to find something online, where do you go?

Odds are overwhelming that it will be to Google, Yahoo or Bing.

I'm old enough to remember when Alta Vista was by far the dominant search engine. Why did they die (or as good as died)?

Simply because a couple of college students came up with a better search algorithm.

The same fate could await the leaders today - but they are spending huge sums and employ a lot of people to make sure they stay on top.

It is important before beginning a journey to decide where you are going. What are you most concerned about? What do you want your promotion effort to do?

The answers to these questions make a difference in which strategies and tactics you will use.

A well-designed and promoted website should be the hub of all your marketing efforts.

Nowadays, if someone hears about you what is the first thing they do? It is a term in the English dictionary now to "google" someone. If they google you and don't find you, you are not going to get their money.

Search Engine Marketing: SEM relates to the purchase of AdWords (or other online marketing media like banner ads). Search engine marketing is very controllable. You decide what you want to spend, which words or phrases you want to purchase, and exactly which page you want your ad to link to.

Search Engine Optimization: SEO relates to the examination of a website to find any technical barriers that might be preventing a search engine from accessing a website's content, and then identifying the most relevant site content and improving significant elements (primarily the page's browser title) in order to help the search engine index the content most effectively.

Social Media Marketing: SMMincludes blog marketing, Micro blogging (Twitter), social networking and more.  You can set up profiles on popular social networking (Web 2.0) sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. You can publish your own blog or participate in online discussions as an expert.

Customer Relations Management: CRM is the interaction between the customer and the company. This would include newsletters, feedback forms, etc.

Content Management System: CMS is an integrated series of templates and programming designed to make it easy to add to and enhance a website. You can add components such as blogs, shipping methods, etc by turning on or installing modules.

The exact algorithm used by the search engines is a closely guarded secret. All search engine marketers are engaged in a never ending quest to try to learn what that algorithm consists of and how it scores various factors.

Google executives have said there are at least 200 factors in their algorithm.

Here is what leading search experts believe is important to Google:

2011 Overall Ranking Algorithm

Source: SEOmoz Ranking Factors

The design elements of Search Engine Optimization are directly under your control - or whoever does your website. These are purely mechanical - it is a matter of putting the right tags, in the right places, and carefully building the site.

Each page is optimized individually, and it is very likely you will have some pages that rank quite well and others not so well. As a whole, high ranking pages boost the site ranking.

1. Title Tag

   Each page should have it's own Title Tag, and the title tag should have keywords in it. A keyword is any word or phrase that you want to be found with when someone types it into the search box.

   Google shows 69 Characters (Including Spaces) for Page Title. There doesn't appear to be any penalty for using more than this, but anything over 69 is not shown or apparently counted.

2. Meta Description Tag

   There are many meta tags available, but the Description tag is the only one of real importance. It is usually what is shown as the 'blurb' or partial paragraph beneath the title line of search engine results. Have an enticing description, and people will click yours before one that doesn't really say anything. It is another place to use those keywords also.

3. Headline Tags

   Just like the headlines in a newspaper or magazine are what grabs your attention, the words in the headlines on your page are important. Google ranks these words higher than other words on the page. There are six levels of headline tags, with h1 being the largest down to h6

   Some web designers give up the chance to put their site higher by using graphic headlines instead of headline tags.

   Remember that these are relative boosts - so it would do no good to put everything inside an h1 headline.

4. Location, Location, Location

   Extra weight is given to text that is placed as close to the beginning of the page as possible. The first 200 characters or so are often cited as being particularly important.

   Don't take a long time leading into what your page is about. The first paragraph should have all the important details.

   The higher up content is in your page code, the more important it is considered by search engine algorithms. To make your website as optimised as possible, your main page content must come before the side column.

   There are a few techniques that can help in moving cthe information higher on the page. The easiest is CSS positioning. Your page source has the content first, but it is positioned in the browser to where you want it (putting it after your navigation buttons, for instance).

   Many people now access the Internet on their cell phone or other small screen device - making them scroll all over for the important text is not a good idea.

5. Sitemap

   A site map in simple terms is just a listing of all the pages on your site. There are several, but the two most important types are an html and an xml sitemap. The html sitemap is for human eyes to find a page easily on your site just by browsing through the listing.

   Creating sitemaps for Google, MSN and Yahoo! - The Easy Way

   A New Standard: Search Engine Giants Adopt the XML Protocol

   In 2005, the search engine Google launched the Sitemap 0.84 Protocol, which uses the XML format.

   A sitemap is a way of organizing a website, identifying the URLs and the data under each section. Previously, the sitemaps were primarily geared for the users of the website. However, Google's XML format was designed for the search engines, allowing them to find the data faster and more efficiently.

   Google's new sitemap protocol was developed in response to the increasing size and complexity of websites. Business websites often contained hundreds of products in their catalogues; while the popularity of blogging led to webmasters updating their material at least once a day, not to mention popular community-building tools like forums and message boards. As websites got bigger and bigger, it was difficult for search engines to keep track of all this material, sometimes "skipping" information as it crawled through these rapidly changing pages.

   Through the XML protocol, search engines could track the URLs more efficiently, optimizing their search by placing all the information in one page. XML also summarizes how frequently a particular website is updated, and records the last time any changes were made.

   XML sitemaps were not, as some people thought, a tool for search engine optimization. It does not affect ranking, but it does allow search engines to make more accurate rankings and searches. It does this by providing the data that a search engine needs, and putting it one place-quite handy, given that there are millions of websites to plough through.

   To encourage other search engines to adopt the XML protocol, Google published it under the Attribution/Share Alike Creative Commons license. Its efforts paid off. Recently, Google happily announced that Yahoo and Microsoft had agreed to "officially support" the XML protocol which has now been updated to the Sitemap 0.9 protocol and jointly sponsored www.sitemaps.org, a site setup to explain the protocol. This is good news for website owners, and an applaudable sign of cooperation between known competitors.

   The shared recognition of the XML protocol means that website developers no longer need to create different types of sitemaps for the different search engines. They can create one file for submission, and then update it when they have made changes on the site. This simplifies the whole process of fine-tuning and expanding a website.

   Through this move, the XML format will soon become a standard feature of all website creation and development. Webmasters themselves have begun to see the benefits that this file provides. Search engines rank a page according to the relevance of its content to particular key words-but until the XML format, there were instances when that content was not properly picked up. It was often frustrating for webmasters to realize that their efforts to build a website were left unseen. Blogs, additional pages, or even the addition of multimedia files took hours to create. Through the XML file, those hours will not be wasted, and will be seen by the three leading search engines-Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

   In a recent move Ask.com has now begun to support xml sitemaps and in an update to the sitemaps protocol it is now possible to tell all search engines the location of your xml sitemap by placing an entry into your robots.txt file.

   Sitemap: http://www.mysite.com/sitemap.xml

   A free service for generating sitemaps is at:

   http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

6. Alt Text

   Optimizing images is becoming more and more important in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for websites. The ALT attribute is a critical step that is often overlooked. This can be a lost opportunity for better rankings.

   In Google’s webmaster guidelines, they advise the use of alternative text for the images on your web site:

   Images:. Use the alt attribute to provide descriptive text. In addition, we recommend using a human-readable caption and descriptive text around the image.

   Why would they ask us to do that? The answer is simple, really; search engines have the same problem as blind users. They cannot see the images.

   Many webmasters and inexperienced or unethical SEOs abuse the use of this attribute, trying to stuff it with keywords, hoping to achieve a certain keyword density, which is not as relevant for rankings now as it once was.

   On the contrary, high keyword density can, on some search engines, trigger spam filters, which may result in a penalty for your site’s ranking. Even without such a penalty, your site’s rankings will not benefit from this tactic.

   This method also puts persons who use screen readers at a greater disadvantage. Screen readers are software-based tools that actually read aloud the contents of what is displayed on the screen. In browsing the web, the alt attributes of images are read aloud as well.

   Imagine listening to a paragraph of text which is followed by repetitions of many keywords. The page would be far from accessible, and, to put it bluntly, would be found quite annoying.

   What exactly is an Alt attribute?

   An ALT attribute should not be used as a description or a label for an image, though many people use it in that fashion. Though it might seem natural to assume that alternate text is a label or a description, it is not!

   The words used within an image’s alt attribute should be its text equivalent and convey the same information or serve the same purpose that the image would.

   The goal is to provide the same functional information that a visual user would see. The alt attribute text should function as a "stand in" in the event that the image itself is not available. Ask yourself this question: If you were to replace the image with the text, would most users receive the same basic information, and would it generate the same response?

   Some examples:

   If a search button is a magnifying glass or binoculars its alt text should be ’search’ or ’find’ not ’magnifying glass’ or ’binoculars’.

   If an image is meant to convey the literal contents of the image, then a description is appropriate.

   If it is meant to convey data, then that data is what is appropriate.

   If it is meant to convey the use of a function, then the function itself is what should be used.

   Some Alt Attribute Guidelines:

   Always add alt attributes to images. Alt is mandatory for accessibility and for valid XHTML.

   For images that play only a decorative role in the page, use an empty alt (i.e. alt="") or a CSS background image so that reading browsers do not bother users by uttering things like "spacer image".

   Remember that it is the function of the image we are trying to convey. For instance; any button images should not include the word "button" in the alt text. They should emphasize the action performed by the button.

   Alt text should be determined by context. The same image in a different context may need drastically different alt text.

   Try to flow alt text with the rest of the text because that is how it will be read with adaptive technologies like screen readers. Someone listening to your page should hardly be aware that a graphic image is there.

   Please keep in mind that using an alt attribute for each image is required to meet the minimum WAI requirements, which are used as the benchmark for accessibility laws in UK and the rest of Europe. They are also required to meet "Section 508" accessibility requirements in the US.

   This Alt Text tutorial was written by John S. Britsios, Social Semantic Web & Technical SEO Consultant at SEO Workers and was published September 10, 2007

   Every image on the site should have alternative text, even if blank.

Get the Design Elements right, and you are well on your way to effective

promotion. But there is much more to be done. The Non-Design Elements are even more important than those you can design in.

The three huge ones:

Link Popularity

Google is by far

the most popular search engine these days. However, it wasn't always so -

Google is a relative newcomer. When it started up, it shook things up. It didn't

care about any of the traditional search engine considerations - all it cared about

was how many incoming links a site had. If you had 1000 webpages linked to

you, and somebody else only had 900, you were ranked ahead.

They've changed their criterion over the years, and now also care about the title

and headline tags. They've also developed a more complex way of ranking the

links coming in, so links from a popular site count more than links from one

nobody has heard of.

Since Google achieved so much success with ranking using link popularity, most

of the other search engines also place a great deal of importance on your links.

This reverses a trend that was happening, where sites tried to be an island by

themselves on the Internet, with no external links at all. It is a return to the way

the Net was developed, by everyone linking to sites they liked or thought

interesting. You want to encourage people to link to your site. Traditionally this

is done by 'swapping' - you link to me and I'll link to you!

Expert Site

Google always wants to send a searcher to a site where they will find the best resources, the best information about what they were searching for.

Google has no way of checking your degree or certifications, or even if what you are saying is true or not. They judge what is an expert site on one basis - volume of information relative to what I'm searching for.

It is almost a given, that the more words you have relevant to what I seek on a website, in more pages, more articles, the better you

will do in the search engines - since there are many more opportunities for the

search engines to find the word or phrase the user is looking for. Sites that have

only pictures of products, prices and item numbers don't do well unless the

customer knows exactly the model number and enters that.

Tight Focus

Also important is having a narrow interest area for your website.

Rather than having a large site that covers all kinds of topics, for best placement

your site should concentrate on one thing as much as possible.

For example, if you had a bicycle shop that sold mountain bikes, children's

bikes, racing bikes and everything else related to bicycling, the old way was to

create one site that covered it all. There would be menu items taking people to

different parts of the site. Now however, you should create 'mini-sites' - one

dealing just with mountain bikes, one dealing just with racing bikes, etc. The

search engine logic is that if a user is seeking information on mountain bikes, a

site dealing just with mountain biking is more relevant than a site dealing with

bicycling in general.

The perfect illustration: the largest retailer of lawn mowers in the world is Sears

- yet if you do a search for lawn mowers Sears will not turn up in the top listings.

The reason is simple - Sears sells everything, there is no focus on lawnmowers. They don't depend on the search engines for their business. If they did, or if they were worried about this, they'd create a website like Searslawnmowers.com

Other non-design elements of note:

Stickiness

Age

Recency

Domain Name

A website with it's own domain name will always do better than one without,

given other things are equal. There was a lot of hype not too long ago about

putting keywords in the domain name. The consensus now is that if it does help,

it doesn't help enough to measure. Rather, simply having a domain name does

help.

Manual Submission

Every search engine now says that they penalize those who use automated

submission sites and programs. You'll get email from time to time saying that all

you have to do is fill out one form, pay a fee, and your site will be submitted to

hundreds of search engines all at once. Don't do it! The search engines know that

those who are trying to cheat the search engines are going to use these automated

routines, and so they penalize those who do. What the search engines want is for

you to go to THEIR submission page, fill out their form, and manually click to

submit it to them.

Better yet, do it the smart way and submit sitemaps to them!

Sitemaps

Your site should have at least 2 sitemaps on it. An html sitemap makes it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for, as it is a page that lists all the other pages on your site. An xml sitemap does the same, but is designed for search engine spiders to read. This makes Google's work much easier, and is highly encouraged.

If you wanted to concentrate on just two things that would bring you the best benefit, remember that:

Content is King - If you have great content, Google will reward your site, other people will link to the content, and it will help in many other ways.

Linking is Queen - Google was designed originally based entirely on inbound links. They still consider every link as a vote.

The first step in any writing project is to come up with the topic. To make this easier,

1. Determine how often you will write. Will it be a daily blog, or a weekly update to your website?

2. Create an editorial calendar in advance that lists a topic for each publishing interval. Be as specific as you can, but you'll be able to refine it later.

The advantage of an editorial calendar is that it eliminates much of the writer's block that can occur without direction. Rather than sitting down and thinking "What should I write about today about SEO?" you look at the calendar and see this should be an article about whatever Google's latest announcement is.

You don't have to come up with a completely different topic each time, you can have a pattern that repeats. Continuing the SEO example, the rotation could be

Google - Bling - Yahoo - Facebook - Linked In - Blogging - Twitter

every week (if you were going to do daily postings)

Duplicate Content Penalty – How to Lose Google Ranking Fast

Ever heard of it? This penalty is applied by Google and possibly other search engines when content found on your website is largely the same as what is found elsewhere on your site or on other websites across the internet.

Search engine spam has been common ever since search engines were first invented. Search engine spam describes the practice of making changes to your website that gets you listed high in search engines at the expense of readability by humans. Years ago, you could get ranked high on a search term simply by repeating it as many times as possible in a document. The primitive search engines of the past ranked the importance of a keyword simply by counting the number of times a term appeared on a page. Today’s search engines are much more complex.

Google has been waging war against all kinds of search engine spam and especially against duplicate content in all forms. There are two main types of duplicate content that Google is concerned about.

The first is a website that simply lists the very same page hundreds or thousands of times with simply a few words changed. This is usually done to attain high ranking on a wide range of keywords. It is most often used to get ranked high on a whole bunch of keywords unrelated to your website but can sometimes be done by a site that is on topic but simply offering duplicate content.

The second type of duplicate content that Google is concerned about revolves around affiliate programs. It has been common practice for high traffic websites to establish an affiliate program. Affiliate programs themselves don’t worry Google. What it doesn’t like though, is for an affiliate program to take a template and then offer it to its base of affiliates to use. Some of the higher traffic websites end up with thousands upon thousands of duplicate websites all promoting the very same things and, according to Google, not offering any real value to the internet community. A website offering this type of cookie cutter website can easily find themselves de-listed by Google as happened to Template Monster a while back.

The third type of duplicate content is simply not included in the Google index. This is content that is found elsewhere on the internet at large. Google and the other major search engines are interested in gathering and cataloging as much quality, unique content as possible for human consumption. To this end, they look to minimize the amount of duplicate content they allow in their index. This is why creating a new website and simply filling it with third part content will rarely if ever result in high rankings in the Google index.

The solution? Don’t rely on duplicate content as your main method of driving traffic to your site. Should you avoid all duplicate content? Of course not. What kind of duplicate content is acceptable? Answering this question is easily another article in itself.

The solution? Don’t rely on duplicate content as your main method of driving traffic to your site. Should you avoid all duplicate content? Of course not. What kind of duplicate content is acceptable? Answering this question is easily another article in itself.

Search Engine Journal Article JULY 6, 2005 BY LOREN BAKER

A resource to check if content could be considered duplicate is http://www.dupecop.com/

It is great to add new content to your own site, and that helps your search engine ranking because of the Content is King idea.

It is also great to have many other sites posting your articles, each with a link back to your site, which helps with the Linking is Queen idea.

Write and publish educational articles and place them on article syndication websites.  Other website owners can publish them on their websites.  Links in the bottom resource box will lead interested people to your website.

Do not post the same articles that would appear on your own site, to avoid the Google penalty against duplicate content. Rewrite any articles enough that they will be seen as original. The links would be good regardless, but no sense bleeding some of your content boost away by posting duplicate content.

Advice from Jim Daniels, BizWeb2000 http://www.bizweb2000.com/

Google's Feb. 2011 “Panda” update imposed some sweeping changes on the world of content. “Low quality” content is increasingly disappearing, being de-indexed or not indexed in the first place, and at best, struggling to rank well.

In order to accomplish our objectives, whatever they are, we need to put an emphasis on “quality”. But what exactly defines “quality”?

In this case, it's a fairly simple question to answer; follow these guidelines, and you'll be on the 'right' side of “quality”:

Length. For content we want to rank – articles for article marketing, Web 2.0 sites that we're using as our target platform, and of course our own websites, we want a minimum of 400 words per article or post. If it is a target article, bump that to 500 words. If it's simply for backlinking i.e. Web 2.0 “feeder site” posts, we can get away with 350 words.

Grammar. No play here – all articles should be 100% grammatically correct, and that mean zero typo's as well.

Originality and “Uniqueness”. Don't use scraped or copied content, period. If you're spinning your content, you want an absolute minimum 45% uniqueness, preferably 50% or more. It's not difficult to make content unique, either manually or with a content spinner, so simply do not use unaltered PLR.

Keywords. Avoid “keyword stuffing”, meaning filling your content with more than a few instances of any particular keyword, or packing in every possible variation of targeted keywords.

Content Quality. Do not use poorly written filler or fluff articles – you know the kind, generally written by someone with no knowledge of the subject, or with little grasp of the language. All articles, posts, etc., should be at least marginally worth reading: informative or entertaining or thought-provoking or enlightening, etc.

To create and use a blog, you have four main choices.

1. Have blogging script put onto your own website

2. Use a blogging platform and have your blog appear on that platform's website

3. Use a blogging platform and embed it into your site.

4. Create your site using the blogging platform as it's core.

Each has its advantages and disadvantages. All can be done for free.

1. Have blogging script installed on site

Pro: Complete control, exactly match to rest of site

Con: Requires more Internet knowledge, not in platform indexes.

2. Use blogging platform and leave it on their servers.

Pro: Easy to set up - in 3 minutes you can have a blog, creates links from popular site to yours which helps your link popularity

Con: Disconnected from rest of site content, with perhaps different look and feel.

3. Use blogging platform and embed on your site.

Pro: Integrates into your site, easy way to frequently be updating your site, adds content to your site.

Con: A bit harder to set up

4. Create your site on blogging platform.

Pro: Usually easier to set up and design than stand-alone website.

Con: Lack of control and possible loss of all content, complex website scripting.

The largest blogging platforms:

Wordpress.com

Wordpress.org

Blogger (Web-Based, Free)

Blogger is a popular and free blogging service now owned by Google. Blogger's big draw is ease of use and nearly instant setup. You can go from blog-less to publishing your first post in under 15 minutes thanks to its extremely easy setup process. Blogger supports drag-and-drop template editing, dynamic updating, geo-tagging for location-based blogging, and easy publication from editing tools like Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and Windows Live Writer. Blogger supports up to 100 users, so if you grow your blog beyond single editorship you can expand without any hassle.

Tumblr

The best way to think of a Tumblr blog is as a hybrid of Twitter’s micro-blogging sensibilities combined with the full, entry-based approach of a traditional blog. Tumblr is a free blog host that offers users a rich experience both in the way they public entries as well as in how those entries are read.

What makes Tumblr unique is that it differentiates between each type of content that a blog entry may contain. Users can post a quote entry, for instance, that gets formatted in a special way just for quotes. Pictures get published as a separate type of entry, and can be styled separately as well — even including captions and other thoughts. The same is true for music, video, traditional entries, and lists.

Tumblr’s Twitter-like approach to blogging also means that users can “re-blog” anything they read on the site. This functions much like a “re-tweet” on Twitter: a re-blogged entry is displayed on the user’s blogging site with proper credit given to the original author. This means that a blog entry on Tumblr easily has the ability to go viral and do a little self-promotion for the original writer.

Wordpress.org has free blogging software to download and install on your own site

Wordpress.com is the blogging platform

If I asked you to put a link on your website, you might not have any great objection - but it is not a simple request.

First, I need to provide you with the text for the link or you need to create it on your own. For many, writing is a chore they avoid whenever possible.

Second, you need to find a place on your website to put the link, open that page in your web editor and either copy and paste or write it in there.

Third, you need to save that on your site either directly or by FTP transfer.

Two additional drawbacks - and they are big ones:

1. For me - if you ever re-edit that page and drop the link as part of a redesign, or drop t the page, I lose the link forever.

2. For you - until that happens, perhaps for years, people visiting your site may see that link to me, follow it, and never go back to your site. This could conceivably hurt your sales, your statistices and your ranking for your own pages given Google's "stickiness" factor.

If you have a blog, mentioning me in an entry with a link back is a very simple affair. In most cases, it is just writing it out in a textarea form box.

The link will scroll off in just a little bit (depending on how often your post) - but it does not drop off into oblivion, it drops into the 'archives. As far as Google is concerned though, it still counts as a permanent link.

To illustrate the power of blog linking, look up "Googlebombing" sometime. It is a 'geek game' where a term is shoved to the top of Google - when it doesn't belong there. This is done by many bloggers mentioning that term in a particular way with a link.

The most notorious example:

If a few years ago you had gone to Google and typed in the words "miserable failure", the number one listing on the results page would have been the official biography of President George W. Bush. Number two was the biography of Michael Moore, and number three was Al Gore. None of these sites had the words miserable failure anywhere on them!

Google has now made it so that if you find you've been "Googlebombed" and don't like it you can complain and they'll strip those links from the index. Of course, if you do like it.....

There are tens of thousands of blogs in existence, and thousands more being born every day. Not many are actually read regularly by visitors - most get seen only by their author. Perhaps not even them, because many blogs are simple neglected and abandoned after a very short period.

You on the other hand want your blog to be an important part of your promotion and marketing. So you will make sure to:

1. Post!

You can choose to do a regular schedule of adding new content to your blog, or a new blog entry whenever you have something to say. If a visitor likes what you say, they may very well come back later to see what you have that is new. If every time I come back there has been no updating, before long I'll dismiss your blog as one of those abandoned ones.

2. Have a Point of View

Blogs that are nothing but facts may be useful and perhaps objectively interesting, but are not something to get excited about, not something to follow and tell others about.

This is your blog, your 'bully pulpit' so don't be afraid to express your opinions and ideas. Yes, you'll lose some that will not agree with you, but you'll make others who do agree with you sure that this is a blog they want to read again.

3. Provide a subscription feature, so that if people do want to keep up with your blog they will be sent an email or tweet that you have a new entry up.

4. Decide if you want this to be you preaching to the masses or a dialog between you and your readers. There is a danger that if you open it up to comments, you might not like some of them. On the other hand, you now have an excellent way to interact with your viewers.

If you have any form for people to leave comments, you will sooner or later (sometimes almost instantly) attract the 'wrong' sort of people.

These 'people' are not interested in what you have to say or your product or your service. They see your blog simply as a place to put a link to their own site. Usually these are spammer, phishing, scammer, pornography or other 'bad neighborhood' sites.

Another sort of disreputable character who may want to hang out on your blog is the person who will fill your comments with offensive language, hate speech or incoherent diatribesl

I do encourage you to allow comments on your blog, but you should moderate them. This means that you are notified of each new comment and have a chance to review it l

Blogs need content, so does yours. It may not be the easiest thing to keep coming up with articles yourself. You can turn to guest bloggers - or become a guest blogger yourself!

Guest bloggers are simply those who write blog postings for blogs that are run by someone else. This can be on assignment, where the blog owner tells you what topic they'd like, or you can propose one.

The pieces of information necessary for successful guest blogging:

1. The demographics of the readership

2. Length of blog posting

3. Topic

4. Tone

5. Compensation

The compensation in most cases will just be your name or byline on the piece and a link back to your site or blog, although it is becoming increasingly common to recieve payment in addition to or instead of the link.

If you are going to get paid, there is NO standard rate - it is whatever you can negotiate. However, many report receiving $20-$40 as the most common range for medium size blog postings. On th elow end, some are only paid $5-10 a post.

A great site, service and newsletter for finding guest bloggers and blogs looking for guests is at :

http://www.bloggerlinkup.com/

From Wikihow:

Write the headline. It should be brief, clear and to the point: an ultra-compact version of the press release’s key point.

News release headlines should have a "grabber" to attract readers, i.e., journalists, just as a newspaper headline is meant to grab readers. It may describe the latest achievement of an organization, a recent newsworthy event, a new product or service. For example, "XYZ Co. enters strategic partnership with ABC Co. in India & United States."

Headlines are written in bold and are typically larger than the press release text. Conventional press release headlines are present-tense and exclude "a" and "the" as well as forms of the verb "to be" in certain contexts.

The first word in the press release headline should be capitalized, as should all proper nouns. Most headline words appear in lower-case letters, although adding a stylized "small caps" style can create a more graphically news-attractive look and feel. Do not capitalize every word.

The simplest method to arrive at the press release headline is to extract the most important keywords from your press release. Now from these keywords, try to frame a logical and attention-getting statement. Using keywords will give you better visibility in search engines, and it will be simpler for journalists and readers to get the idea of the press release content.

Write the press release body copy. The press release should be written as you want it to appear in a news story.

Start with the date and city in which the press release is originated. The city may be omitted if it will be confusing, for example if the release is written in New York about events in the company's Chicago division.

The lead, or first sentence, should grab the reader and say concisely what is happening. The next 1-2 sentences then expand upon the lead.

The press release body copy should be compact. Avoid using very long sentences and paragraphs. Avoid repetition and over use of fancy language and jargon.

A first paragraph (two to three sentences) must actually sum up the press release and the further content must elaborate it. In a fast-paced world, neither journalists nor other readers would read the entire press release if the start of the article didn't generate interest.

Deal with actual facts - events, products, services, people, targets, goals, plans, projects. Try to provide maximum use of concrete facts. A simple method for writing an effective press release is to make a list of following things:

3Communicate the 5 Ws and the H. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. Then consider the points below if pertinent.

What is the actual news?

Why this is news.

The people, products, items, dates and other things related with the news.

The purpose behind the news.

Your company - the source of this news.

Now from the points gathered, try to construct paragraphs and assemble them sequentially: The headline > the summary or introduction of the news > event or achievements > product > people > again the concluding summary > the company.

The length of a press release should be no more than three pages. If you are sending a hard copy, text should be double-spaced. (Steve's note - I've heard editors say they HATE multi-page press releases - keep it to one page if possible)

The more newsworthy you make the press release copy, the better the chances of it being selected by a journalist for reporting. Find out what "newsworthy" means to a given market and use it to hook the editor or reporter.

4Include information about the company. When a journalist picks up your press release for a story, he/she would logically have to mention the company in the news article. Journalists can then get the company information from this section.

The title for this section should be - About XYZ_COMPANY

After the title, use a paragraph or two to describe your company with 5/6 lines each. The text must describe your company, its core business and the business policy. Many businesses already have professionally written brochures, presentations, business plans, etc. - that introductory text can be put here.

At the end of this section, point to your website. The link should be the exact and complete URL without any embedding so that, even if this page is printed, the link will be printed as it is. For example: http://www.your_company_website.com. Companies which maintain a separate media page on their websites must point to that URL here. A media page typically has contact information and press kits.

5Tie it together. Provide some extra information links that support your press release.

6Add contact information. If your press release is really newsworthy, journalists would surely like more information or would like to interview key people associated with it.

If you are comfortable with the idea of letting your key people being directly contacted by media, you can provide their contact details on the press release page itself. For example, in case of some innovation, you can provide the contact information of your engineering or research team for the media.

Otherwise, you must provide the details of your media/PR department in the "Contact" section. If you do not have dedicated team for this function, you must appoint somebody who will act as a link between the media and your people.

The contact details must be limited and specific only to the current press release. The contact details must include:

The Company's Official Name

Media Department's official Name and Contact Person

Office Address

Telephone and fax Numbers with proper country/city codes and extension numbers

Mobile Phone Number (optional)

Timings of availability

E-mail Addresses

Web site Address

7Signal the end of the press release with three # symbols, centered directly underneath the last line of the release. This is a journalistic standard.

EditTips

Include the company name in the headline, any subhead, and in the body of the first paragraph for better visibility via search engines and for news professionals and other readers. If you're mailing a hard copy, you may put it on company letterhead.

If the press release is for immediate release, you may write "IMMEDIATE RELEASE" in all caps on the left margin, directly above the headline. If the release is embargoed, put "EMBARGOED UNTIL..." with the date you want the story released. A release with no release date is presumed to be for immediate release.

Research actual press releases on the web to get the feel of the tone, the language, the structure and the format of a press release.

The timing of the press release is very important. It must be relevant and recent news, not too old and not too distant.

A follow-up call can help develop a press release into a full story.

Include a "call to action" in your release. This is information on what you want the public to do with the information that you are releasing. For example, do you want them to buy a product? If so, include information on where the product is available. Do you want them to visit your Web site to enter a contest or learn more about your organization? If so, include the Web address or a phone number.

Do not waste time writing the headline until the release is done. Copy editors write the real headlines in newspapers and magazines, but it is good to come up with a catchy title or "headline" for the release. This headline may be your only chance. Keep it concise and factual. But if you try to write it before you write the release, you waste time. You don't know yet exactly what you - or those you interview, will say. When you have finished a draft of the release, you may decide to revise your lead -- or not. Then and only then think about the headline.

Send your release by e-mail, and use formatting sparingly. Giant type and multiple colors don't enhance your news, they distract from it. Put the release in the body of the e-mail, not as an attachment. If you must use an attachment, make it a plain text or Rich Text Format file. Word documents are acceptable at most outlets, but if you are using the newest version (.docx), save down a version (.doc). Newspapers, especially, are on tight budgets now, and many have not upgraded. Use PDF files only if you are sending a full media kit with lots of graphics. Please don't type a release on letterhead, scan it, and e-mail a jpeg of the scan. That's a waste of your time and the editor's. Just type the release into the e-mail message.

Use your headline as the subject line of the e-mail. If you've written a good "grabber" headline, this will help your message stand out in the editor's e-mail inbox.

Craft each release to target a specific media outlet and send it to the specific reporter who covers that beat. This information can usually be found on the outlet's Web site. Blasting the identical press release to multiple outlets and multiple reporters at the same outlet is a sign that you are taking shortcuts rather than targeting a specific market.

Avoid jargon or specialized technical terms. If accuracy requires the use of an industry-specific term, define it.

EditWarnings

Always remember that editors are overworked and understaffed. If you can make life easier for them, you're more likely to get coverage. If you write a press release that's close to the way the editor will actually publish it, it may see publication with minimal editing. But if you fill it with fluffy advertising copy, don't use proper AP style, etc., the editor must severely delete this kind of fluff. Everybody says they're the leader. Don't waste the editor's time. The place to put a description is in the company information section of the release. But keep it accurate and factual.

Always include a quote - ideally from the lead individual involved in the subject matter of the release. The text need not be an actual quote but it should be plausible. Either way, it is essential to check the person being quoted is happy with it. A quote allows a busy journalist to prepare a complete article without doing a follow-up interview.

Articles should be as up-beat and positive as possible. Avoid phrases like "following the resignation of the previous chairman" or "after a period of inactivity". A journalist could decide to investigate those matters instead of reporting what is in the press release and - even if the circumstances were completely innocuous, for instance if the chairman had resigned due to ill health - the resulting copy might not be to your liking.

When e-mailing a press release, do not make the subject line of your e-mail "press release." You will only blend into the crowd. Get the editor's attention by making the subject line your "grabber" headline, e.g. "Brand Co. wins $30 billion government contract."

Do not include other people's contact details without getting their agreement. In addition, they must be available at all reasonable hours in the days following the release

Press Release Template

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
Contact Person
Company Name
Telephone Number
Fax Number
Email Address
Web site address

Headline

City, State, Date — Opening Paragraph (should contain: who, what, when, where, why):

Remainder of body text – Should include any relevant information to your products or services. Include benefits, why your product or service is unique. Also include quotes from staff members, industry experts or satisfied customers.

If there is more than 1 page use:

-more-

-more-

(The top of the next page):

Abbreviated headline (page 2)

Remainder of text.

(Restate Contact information after your last paragraph):

For additional information or a sample copy, Contact: (all Contact information)

Summarize product or service specifications one last time

Company History (try to do this in one short paragraph)

# # #

(indicates Press Release is finished)

If there was one thing to learn from this book above all others, one take-a-way technique you can use that will set you apart, it is the concept of the online press release.

Remember what the two most important things to Google are? The King and the Queen?

Linking and content!

Keep that in mind, and remember also those thousands of blogs being launched daily? What they all share in common is they need content!

An online press release is nothing more than a feed of content to all these hungry websites and blogs. Just like a traditional media press release feeds story suggestions and information to newspapers, magazine and broadcast media, your online press releases feed story suggestions and information to other websites and blogs.

There are many blogs and websites that are just round-ups or summaries of this type of information. "News around the Internet" type blogs or sites may just take your online press release, copy what you send them, and paste it into their own. Others will rewrite it and a few will actually contact you to round out the story.

It doesn't matter to you, since in exchange, all you ask for is a link back to your site!

How do you find these sites or blogs that might be willing to use your online press release? Google a keyword, and copy and paste the results into a list you can save and open up on your computer. Then from the results see if you can find an email address for the webmaster or site owner. In some cases it will be on the site, in others you'll have to ask through a contact form on the site. Some you'll just have to decide if they are worth doing more digging to locate.

Make a list of these email addresses that you can feed to your mailing list manager.

Your actual press release could just be a headline and a short paragraph. Some will choose to create longer versions for those sites that like to post entire articles - and now we are back into article marketing.

Each press release gives all of your contact information and grants permission to the receiving site to use the information, then asks for a link or resource box.

What does it cost you to send out? Zilch - but the potential now becomes very good that your name or your company name (and link to your site) will start appearing all around the Internet.

In Pay Per Click advertising, the advertiser pays each time a viewer clicks on the ad and goes to the target site.

Google AdWords is a provider of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads. It

allows businesses to create ads and target specific keywords. As people search for these keywords, the paid ads appear in Google paid search results.

Does that sound confusing? Let’s break it down. For example, let’s do a search for a dentist in Cambridge, MA. As you can see in the screenshot below, there are two types of results that appear in results:

The ad program itself is called Google AdWords, and they provide an administrative area called Google Adsense, as well as statistical analysis in Google Analytics.

• When users search using one of your keywords, your ad can appear on their search results page
• You only pay when someone clicks on your ad
• You can adjust your creative, keywords and bids on the fly, based on precise results

Eyeball or per-impression advertising is using display and text advertising to build brand awareness.

While it would be very nice to get clicks and actual sales from display ads, the truth is that consumers don't generally click ads.

The average standard banner ad click-through rate (CTR) has, after a continued decline, stabilized at 0.09 percent.

This is the major finding revealed in MediaMind Technologies Inc.’s recent report, ‘Standard Banners – Non-Standard Results’.

Based on comparing the average banner ad click-through rates or CTRs per month from July 2006 to July 2010, MediaMind has found that the average banner ad CTR has been 0.09 percent since January 2009.

In other words, during each month between January 2009 and July 2010, the average banner ad CTR was 0.09 percent

Almost every website you go to however has some ads on it. Why is advertising all over the Net? Because the site owner makes money from advertising, or thinks they can .

While there are no standards, the average CPM (cost per thousand impressions) rates for tech industry were around $15 in Q2 2009

For other sectors, some more rstatistics show that average CPM for food and real estate have been going up, while for most sectors they have been going down.

If you get 5000 unique visitors per month to your website, then 1 ad on 1 page of your website should generate on average:

$75 for technology down to $16 for beauty and fashion.

Doesn't seem like very much - but this is for 1 ad on 1 page. How many pages could a website have? Another factor to consider is that there is almost no work involved, so it is just about free money to the site owner.

Interstitial ads are those annoying things you have to wait for before your game download begins, or between Pandora songs (with the free version)

We put up with them though because we know that they are paying the bills to allow that Pandora free or that game to be FREE for we the users.

CPV = COST PER VIEW
CPV stands for cost-per-view, a type of ad campaign that is usually used with pop-ups, pop-unders and interstitial advertisements. Advertisers only have to pay when their ad window appears on a user's browser. This allows for a more high impact advertising campaign.

The Ongoing Evolution of Place Pages

Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 4:30 PM

Making constant tweaks and adjustments to our user interfaces and overall user experience have always been the norm at Google, and you may have recently heard about our renewed effort across all Google products to make the user experience more focused, elastic and effortless. Changes have already started to appear on Google Maps, and we’ve now simplified our Place pages across desktop and mobile devices as well.

Some of the changes you’ll notice today have been made so you can quickly get a sense for what other people are saying about a place, more easily upload photos of places you’ve been (by using a more obvious “Upload a photo” button), and see reviews in a single section on the page. Since the introduction of Google Places’ local rating and review feature last fall -- originally called Hotpot -- we’ve heard loud and clear that reviews help you find the places that are right for you, especially when you’re able to get recommendations based on your tastes and those of your friends. So we’ve added the call-to-action “Write a review” button to the top of the Place page to encourage you to tell us what you think about places you’ve visited, while at the same time ensuring that you get personalized recommendations in return when you’re signed in to your Google account.

Based on careful thought about the future direction of Place pages, and feedback we’ve heard over the past few months, review snippets from other web sources have now been removed from Place pages. Rating and review counts reflect only those that’ve been written by fellow Google users, and as part of our continued commitment to helping you find what you want on the web, we’re continuing to provide links to other review sites so you can get a comprehensive view of locations across the globe. 

images/cafe-campagne.png

Beyond today’s transition, our long-term vision for local search includes:

• Bringing you more personalized results when you search for local places -- because we understand that information from the people you know is most meaningful;
• Integrating some of the great information that’s been buried on Place pages into your web search experience across all Google platforms;
• Giving you more ways to rate, discover and share places you love faster and easier than ever, wherever you are, and on whichever device you choose.

So whether you’re looking for a great restaurant you haven’t yet tried, or the perfect place to buy a friend’s birthday gift, we hope you continue to find the information on Place pages useful. There have been lots of changes in the nearly two years since Place pages were introduced, and because there’s always more room for improvement, you can expect more changes to come.

Posted by Avni Shah, Director of Product Management

The Ultimate List: 50 Local Business Directories

Posted by Eric Vreeland

Mon, Mar 07, 2011 @ 11:00 AM

As a local business, attracting new customers can be a major challenge. Quickly disappearing are the days when people would go to the YellowPages to find local businesses. Today people are turning to the internet as a way to find trusted business recommendations. One way local businesses can get found is through inclusion in online directories. Adding a listing to these online directories is easy, but if you only list in a few you're really missing a huge opportunity to get found by online searchers.

Every individual directory that you submit to is another chance to get found online so it's important to make sure you're listed in every directory possible. I have compiled a list of many popular local directories available on the internet. Filling out the forms over and over again can be a big pain, so here's a link to an Auto-Fill add-on for Firefox that should help prevent carpal tunnel.

50 Business Directories For Local Marketing

1. Google
2. Bing
3. Yahoo!
4. Yelp
5. Merchant Circle
6. LinkedIn
7. YellowPages.com
9. Whitepages
10. Supermedia
11. Yellowbook
12. CitySearch
13. Mapquest
14. Biznik
15. Local.com
16. Foursquare
17. ThinkLocal
18. CitySlick
19. USYellowPages
20. MyCity
21. Outside.in
22. Dex
23. BizJournals.com
24. TeleAtlas
25. Justclicklocal
26. Discover our Town
27. Metrobot
28. Best Deals on
29. twibs
30. LocalEze
31. Kudzu
32. CityVoter
33. Manta
34. Zipweb
35. MatchPoint
36. UsCity.net
37. Local Site submit
38. InfoUSA
39. Axciom
40. Infignos
41. Yellowassistance
42. ChoiceVendor.com
42. Myhuckleberry
43. Genieknows
44. MojoPages
45. Brownbook
46. Magic Yellow
47. CitySquares
48. TeleAtlas
49. Navteq GPS
50. Judysbook 

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/10322/The-Ultimate-List-50-Local-Business-Directories.aspx#ixzz1VrDZgnon

JC Penney Linkbait Scam Exposed, Penalized by Google

By JM Barnes14. February 2011 04:08

The New York Times reported on Sunday that J.C. Penney had been exposed for implementing link-bait on an unprecedented scale, skewing search results and leading Google to levy severe penalties on the company's page rank against important keywords.

The article, titled The Dirty Little Secrets of Search, detailed how Penney had enjoyed 1st position results for highly competitive keywords like "dresses", "bedding", and "area rugs". and more valuable terms like "skinny jeans", "home decor" and "comforter sets". What was revealed was a widespread campaign of seeding thousands of links to J. C. Penney on largely irrelevant and unrelated, even obscure, websites. This process, commonly known as "link-farming", is a well-known black-hat technique for gaming Google's search results, even though Google publicly announced several years ago that it was preventing this techniqe from skewing its search results.

Apparently, not so...while Penney feigned ignorance about the use of link-farming, it summarily fired its search company, and Google proceeded to take punitive action by de-ranking the company for various keywords.

While Google insists that external links have less importance to a web page's SERPs than content, it is an inextricable component that Google can't ignore, especially as a gauge of momentary popularity. While Google claims to monitor SERPs for evidence of link-farming, it is a larger problem to identify social-media link abuses, as these results are critical to Google's "real time search" rank that takes into account social media links from Facebook, Twitter et al.

What's chilling for most white-hat SEOs is that black-hat techniques are alive and well, and put white hats at a competitive disadvantage. A black hat interviewed for the article implied that "S.E.O. is a game, and if you’re not paying black hats, you are losing to rivals with fewer compunctions." Even Matt Cutts, Google's top search-spam cop, noted that it's impossible for Google to police every link scam, although they do red-flag suspicious things like rapid growth of inbound links. It shows, however, that any proactive action on Google's part requires manual intervention by an employee; there is no automated process in place yet to deal with this type of exploit

eMarketer, which cited Global Web Index’s report,  predicts the number of Facebook users in the U.S. will rise 13.4% in 2011, after 38.6% growth in 2010 and a 90.3% rise in 2009. EMarketer sees Twitter having a similar plateau: Adoption of the service rose 293.1% in 2009, but will only grow 26.3% this year. The primary growth for Facebook and Twitter is coming from the so-called BRIC nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China — plus Indonesia, eMarketer reports.

• Create a business page or a whole series of pages attached to your profile
• Use Publisher to keep your users updated on new content.
• Write Notes (even on-the-go) and share them with your audience.
• Post Photos and Videos of your events.
• Add Applications that enhance your Page experience.
• Create Discussion Boards to solicit user feedback and generate brainstorms.
• Create Groups to help your fans with similar interests connect with one another
• Set up Events and have your fans RSVP
• Import your blog and help it spread on Facebook

People now spend more time on Facebook than they do on Google

What can you say in 140 characters?

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform. You are generally limited to that 140 characters, but it is very easy to send a Tweet (twitter posting) and it can be done from a cellphone, browser or through services.

Some ideas:

Tweet teasers about a new contest or product that will be launching soon

Tweet invites to a special event

Tweet sale prices

Tweet awards and favorable mentions

Where Facebook and to some extent Twitter is like having hundreds of conversations going on in a crowd, LinkedIn is like a networking meeting amongst peers.

At its heart, LinkedIn is a collection of discussion groups, organized by interest area.

For example, I belong to several groups, among which are:

• 

eMarketing Association Network



Consultants Network

17038



Continuing Education Presenters in Washington Metro Area



Freelancer (in)

17



I Love Small Business

1



Inbound Marketers - For Marketing Professionals

10



Linux Expert

1214



Magic In Business



MSPA Mystery Shoppers

1



On Startups - The Community For Entrepreneurs

32518



Open Source

1520



PERFORMA - CLOSE-UP MAGIC



Professional Clown Network



Search Engine Land

96



Social Media Marketing

2076



Starting Home Business

264



U.S. Veteran

162



Ubuntu Users ( 20.000+ members ) Official Group

16d28e7.png'>

Web Design and Development Professionals



web site development

6



Webmaster

2



Webmaster-Talk.com

WebmasterWorld [WMW]

By showing your presence in the group discussions, you will show what you’re made of. You may have a lot to show or offer, but how can you get noticed without commenting, writing, etc? Make this a routine activity of yours to spend some time everyday to increase your active presence on your ideal LinkedIn Group discussions.

Help others, lead them and provide useful information to relive them from the issues they may have. Offer solutions free of charge, and show them how they can find, use and implement those solutions.

When they know you as an expert who offers instead of selling, you will be liked, added, asked for more, etc. Your network grows and people rely on you as a source of information, solution, etc. You will be a specialist with the answers they require. Don’t you think they will go to you or refer others to you to buy from you then?

Start a discussion to get feedback about what you’re looking for. See how your target audience is thinking about a particular topic. Hear it from them first-hand instead of guessing what they may think or do in response to your online marketing campaigns. This helps you realize how to market your product, service, etc.

Google very recently launched its Google+ social media site. Here is what they say:

+Circles: share what matters, with the people who matter most
Not all relationships are created equal. So in life we share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss. The problem is that today’s online services turn friendship into fast food—wrapping everyone in “friend” paper—and sharing really suffers:

• It’s sloppy. We only want to connect with certain people at certain times, but online we hear from everyone all the time.
• It’s scary. Every online conversation (with over 100 “friends”) is a public performance, so we often share less because of stage fright.
• It’s insensitive. We all define “friend” and “family” differently—in our own way, on our own terms—but we lose this nuance online.

In light of these shortcomings we asked ourselves, “What do people actually do?” And we didn’t have to search far for the answer. People in fact share selectively all the time—with their circles.

From close family to foodies, we found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks. So we did the only thing that made sense: we brought Circles to software. Just make a circle, add your people, and share what’s new—just like any other day:

Doing a Ning Thing

There are a number of Web programs and sites that let you create your own branded

social network, as opposed to forming a group in a public network like Facebook or

MySpace. For example, www.ning.com now has over a million members and thousands

of social networks.

A branded Ning network can help you in a

number of ways: first to get comfortable

with the various features, and then to

create a real venue where members can

do what social media does best—share

ideas and information with each other

while you act as a host and facilitator.

The first step is to create an identity for all of Ning; then you find and join the social

networks you want. If you’re just getting started in social media, Ning is a great way to

search for networks in your profession or industry and begin to connect with others.

Using the discussion forums helps you to form new relationships and get a feel for what

works and what doesn’t—you’ll quickly see how self-promotion is ignored while active participation is rewarded.

There is also a Ning network devoted to its network creators (http://networkcreators.ning.com) and a Ning blog

(http://blog.ning.com) that highlights new and interesting social networks. Even by looking at (and joining) networks in areas that

are directly connected with your own, you can see how the basic network features enable a community of users helping and

communicating with other users to flourish.

Page 15

An even better way to get a feel for these features is to create your own social network with Ning, even if it’s just as a small test to

see which features will best support your goals.

Briefly, each Ning has a unique Layout determined by its administrator. Ning’s default features (already in Layout) include a network

Description, a list of Members, Videos, Photos, a Forum or Discussion Area and Activity (like Twitter’s Status Update). Using a simple

drag and drop process, the Administrator can add additional features to the Layout of the Main Page:

Events

Groups

Blog

Chat

Music

Text Box

RSS

Get Badges

Birthdays

Notes

On the day I wrote this section, the featured Ning on the Ning blog was a network called Sneaker Lab. There is very little about the

actual “sponsor” on the network—Maurice Taylor, an NBA player with two stores in the Houston area. Instead there is a music video

and music playlist of artists and songs that young people who buy high-end athletic footwear favor, music videos by similar artists,

and very beautiful pictures and reviews of hot-looking sneakers. Taylor appears in an audio blog where he talks about the NBA

playoffs—an item of major interest to the Sneaker Lab members. The main event highlighted on the network was a sneaker

extravaganza at a club in Houston.

Now consider: on a national level, if you were the importer of a new line of athletic footwear, wouldn’t you be extremely interested

in how others in your industry were viewed on this network? Wouldn’t you love to have one of your products reviewed on the site?

And then, at some point, couldn’t you just as easily promote an online event, using a contest or giveaway, not directly about your

sneakers, but perhaps about a topic that’s hot on the site? For example, maybe Taylor himself could be induced to come onto a Web

conference and discuss a topic like “Fashion or Passion? Do You Need a Shoe for the Clubs or the Gym?”

Page 16

With enough traction you could research members through their profiles and shared content—and then promote Webinars and

conferences related to their interests. You could then post archived events on YouTube and link back to them on your various

networks to build interaction and dialog, creating additional buzz about online events that add value for your members and

potential customers.

There are a number of Web programs and sites that let you create your own branded

social network, as opposed to forming a group in a public network like Facebook or

MySpace. For example, www.ning.com now has over a million members and thousands

of social networks.

A branded Ning network can help you in a

number of ways: first to get comfortable

with the various features, and then to

create a real venue where members can

do what social media does best—share

ideas and information with each other

while you act as a host and facilitator.

The first step is to create an identity for all of Ning; then you find and join the social

networks you want. If you’re just getting started in social media, Ning is a great way to

search for networks in your profession or industry and begin to connect with others.

Using the discussion forums helps you to form new relationships and get a feel for what

works and what doesn’t—you’ll quickly see how self-promotion is ignored while active participation is rewarded.

There is also a Ning network devoted to its network creators (http://networkcreators.ning.com) and a Ning blog

(http://blog.ning.com) that highlights new and interesting social networks. Even by looking at (and joining) networks in areas that

are directly connected with your own, you can see how the basic network features enable a community of users helping and

communicating with other users to flourish.

Page 15

An even better way to get a feel for these features is to create your own social network with Ning, even if it’s just as a small test to

see which features will best support your goals.

Briefly, each Ning has a unique Layout determined by its administrator. Ning’s default features (already in Layout) include a network

Description, a list of Members, Videos, Photos, a Forum or Discussion Area and Activity (like Twitter’s Status Update). Using a simple

drag and drop process, the Administrator can add additional features to the Layout of the Main Page:

Events

Groups

Blog

Chat

Music

Text Box

RSS

Get Badges

Birthdays

Notes

On the day I wrote this section, the featured Ning on the Ning blog was a network called Sneaker Lab. There is very little about the

actual “sponsor” on the network—Maurice Taylor, an NBA player with two stores in the Houston area. Instead there is a music video

and music playlist of artists and songs that young people who buy high-end athletic footwear favor, music videos by similar artists,

and very beautiful pictures and reviews of hot-looking sneakers. Taylor appears in an audio blog where he talks about the NBA

playoffs—an item of major interest to the Sneaker Lab members. The main event highlighted on the network was a sneaker

extravaganza at a club in Houston.

Now consider: on a national level, if you were the importer of a new line of athletic footwear, wouldn’t you be extremely interested

in how others in your industry were viewed on this network? Wouldn’t you love to have one of your products reviewed on the site?

And then, at some point, couldn’t you just as easily promote an online event, using a contest or giveaway, not directly about your

sneakers, but perhaps about a topic that’s hot on the site? For example, maybe Taylor himself could be induced to come onto a Web

conference and discuss a topic like “Fashion or Passion? Do You Need a Shoe for the Clubs or the Gym?”

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With enough traction you could research members through their profiles and shared content—and then promote Webinars and

conferences related to their interests. You could then post archived events on YouTube and link back to them on your various

networks to build interaction and dialog, creating additional buzz about online events that add value for your members and

potential customers.

BizShop should be your first choice when it comes to outsourcing any promotion activities you don't have time to do or don't want to do yourself.

Email us at bizshop@bizshop.com and tell me what you'd like done. I'll prepare a no-obligation quote for you!