Archive for the 'Internet Marketing' Category
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
A Virtual Buzz Assistant is a person that works remotely and helps you create more buzz online.
The issue with creating buzz is that you need a solid strategy before you start using a Virtual Buzz Assistant. If you just tell them to go out and create buzz, they will try all kinds of things but not get great results because great results come from having a strategy and sticking to it long enough to get results.
Here are 5 specific things that a Virtual Assistant can do that makes sense.
1) Write Blog posts - they can keep your Blog fresh and interesting.
2) Online Advocacy - Contact people and invite them to sign up for your newsletter, try a free sample, link to your site or whatever your goal is.
3) Build online resources - They could write in Hubpages and Squidoo every month, creating more things that reference your website.
4) Bookmark and submit your blog - The VBA can use social bookmarks and blog directories to build more links (ways for people to find you)
5) Article Publishing - Virtual Buzz Assistant can submit your articles to article directories every month, making sure that content is unique and links properly.
Article Submitted By: Ron McDaniel
Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Monday, June 30th, 2008
I cannot stress enough the importance of registering and maintaining your own domain name. I just got a call from a client that had let a previous host register his domain name for him, and every year it has been a huge headache and far more expensive than it should be.
This year he finally is transferring it to his own oversight, but he waited until the last day and now it is stuck in limbo because he cannot access his email, which is tied to the domain (he should have used a different email that would not go down if the domain did.)
I know many people are not technical and they just want someone to take care of it for them, but this is kind of like letting someone else manage your telephone number. It is better to just pay that bill on your own because your phone is too important.
You can register and manage your own domain name at www.outstandahosting.com - and you will get 100% control of either hosting it there or hosting it elsewhere. So when you are no longer happy with your website host, they cannot hold you ransom - you just log into your domain management account and chance where it points.
Here are 5 tips to keep your domain safe.
- Use One Account
You may register a domain in one place, then find another place that is $1 per year less. Don’t do it. Just keep all your domains in the same place so you can manage them well. Any price $10 per year or under is fair.
- Never Use the Domain email
If you use the domain email and the domain goes down, you are stuck because you cannot approve changes that come via email. Set up a gmail account or use different emails in the different contact areas.
- Register for Multiple Years
Google likes to see that you register your domain for more than one year. It is also easier to manage if you just pay for a few years up front, and will often save you a little money.
- Multiple MX Records
Your email gets forwarded to an email server by the MX Record. You can have multiple MX Records as a failsafe for your email. I have never seen an email host without at least two options.
- A Record
Your A record is where everything gets sent that is not otherwise specified. In many cases, you only have to set up your A Record and your MX Record, and your hosts will take care of the rest. Then if you later chance hosts, you just change these addresses - they cannot hold your domain hostage and overcharge you for changing.
I am writing this because it really is important that you take the 1/2 hour or so to understand it and do it yourself. Even if it is a free add-on from your service provider, go straight to a registrar like www.outstandahosting.com and do it yourself. Then things will just stay simple and you will never experience the frustration of transferring a domain.
Posted in Internet Marketing, Small Business, Tech | No Comments »
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
Blogging is hard work. The technology is not hard, but the daily commitment to creating quality content is hard work.
And it does not stop there. If you produce great content but do not get your Blog linked to, talked about and visible, your excellent content will probably still go unnoticed.
Virtual Buzz Assistants are people that are certified in online buzz marketing and can help create buzz for a blog.
Virtual Buzz Assistants work just like other virtual assistants, but they have chosen to specialize in Internet marketing. They work at building great relationships and they become experts in the tools that you can use to create more buzz and visibility.
Bloggers that want to be successful have to have a great niche, interesting content and they have to either spend a lot of time promoting the blog, or hire a Virtual Buzz Assistant to help them. The assistant could be hired to keep fresh content on the blog, and this is especially important for businesses that may get busy and let their blog effort slip. The assistant can also promote your blog by using the many tools available online to grow your audience.
Here are 5 ways a Virtual Buzz Assistant can help you on a monthly basis.
- email people about your article - By emailing people to point out an interesting article on your blog to people that run similar blogs, you can generate links and more traffic.
- Upload blog information into Blog Catalog and other blog directories, and link to people there.
- Use micro-blogging solutions like Twitter or Tumblr to highlight your blog posts each week.
- Social Bookmarks - Virtual Buzz Assistants can bookmark your blog posts to get them more inbound links and traffic.
- Interview opportunities - Your Virtual Buzz Assistant can look for opportunities for you to be interviewed on other blogs or podcasts, and they can conduct interviews to add more interesting content for your blog.
These are just some of the areas that a Virtual Buzz Assistant can help you be a more successful blogger with less of your time going towards promotion. To request a Virtual Buzz Assistant, click here.
Posted in Blog Traffic, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Small Business | No Comments »
Friday, May 11th, 2007
Google recently updated Google Analytics. With it, there are some fancy new graphics and features. While it looks nice, some of it can feel a distracting with its overwhelming set of features. The key is not to get too distracted by all of the bells and whistles and be able to stay on target with your goals. Seth Godin summed it up well in his recent post.
It’s really easy to let ego take over and think about just trying to increase site traffic, but don’t forget that there was an original reason for the site in the first place! Unless your purpose was to just drive more traffic and create awareness, and you have no other conversion goals, then you may want to think more on how Google Analytics can help you attain your original goals.
Posted in Buzz, Internet Marketing, Tech | No Comments »
Monday, March 5th, 2007
Ron McDaniel just wrote an interesting post on 99 web tools for creating buzz. Here is an excerpt from his post, showing Blog directory tools.
There are plenty more listed on his post. Check it out on his blog page. There are lots of valuable tools listed there. Feel free to add some as well!
Posted in Buzz, Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Thursday, December 28th, 2006
Do you have a website? If so, are you confident that it is good? When designing your website ask yourself these things:
- Is my site design pretty or ugly?
- It is one thing to want to spice things up, but it is easy to go overboard with graphics and create a distracting, hideous site. When talking about design, less can be more. A nice, clean look gives a more professional look. Over doing it can actually hurt your site and appear amateur, despite all the time and effort you put into the shiny graphics.
- Does the visitor know who we are or what we do?
- Your homepage should let the user know what you do. Not only for search engine reasons, but so potential customers don’t click away from your site because you don’t have a clear definition or identity.
- Do I have content?
- People must have a reason to visit your site. Having good content that is updated frequently can get some attention for you.
- Are people coming back?
- Along with maintaining an arsenal of content on your site try to make the visitor a long term one. My last post touches base on this.
- Have I taken a really fresh look at my site lately?
- This is huge. This is a common scenario: You work on your site for a week. Things are looking better as you go. When it’s done you think you have a masterpiece. You show it to someone else and they think your site’s a mess. How does this happen? If this has happened to you then more than likely the reason is because you have isolated yourself. Compared to your initial stages of your site it may look good, but compared to others it may still need a lot of work. If you don’t keep yourself fresh by looking around at other sites and showing your work to others for feedback then you may fall victim to this.
There are just a few things to consider when building a website. There’s more to it, of course, and I will touch on that another day. Until then, safe journey to you, and here’s to having the web working with you!
Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Monday, October 30th, 2006
There is a great site out there called Squidoo that you should know about. Why, you ask? For starters, this site is completely free, and it lets you create your own webspace with ease. Nothing beats free buzz! From here you can create links to your own products or webpage, write a small bio, and more. It’s a good, simple tool for spreading the word of your business on the web.
You can even create multiple squidoo lenses to get the message out even further. Check it out.
Posted in Buzz, Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
An advocate is someone that tells others about the benefits of using something and encourages others to use the product or service.
Wouldn’t it be great if you had 10 people out their strongly advocating you?
If you are looking for advocates among people you do not know well, then you have a lot of hard work in front of you. However, there is another group that many small and mid-sized businesses overlook: Employees.
If your current work culture says employees work a set time limit on a set of tasks, and does not take into consideration the extended network of people each employee knows, you are missing out on a huge opportunity.
Employees in the right environment and with the right encouragement will create buzz and word of mouth for their organization. They need to understand that buzz is everyone’s responsibility and they have to have success stories and good information that will help them create buzz more easily. This phenomenon is called Employee Evangelism.
Some key strategies that can help you begin an employee evangelism movement in your organization are:
- Let people know how and why you want to do it, and how it will benefit them.
- Create a Buzz Guide that spells out the do’s and don’ts of creating buzz.
- Publish and distribute success stories, company information and interesting trivia to employees and customers. Encourage them to share it.
- Publicly recognize employees that create buzz.
- Encourage reporting of buzz efforts.
- Set a goal of a minimum number of buzz attempts each week.
- Encourage employees to become experts in a given field.
If you do those things, and also give your advocates clear examples and instructions on buzz tools, you will find your business growing quickly. Some examples of buzz tools are:
- Blogging
- Podcasts
- News sites where you can post news, such as www.digg.com
- email follow-ups with stale connections
- Build a Squidoo lens
- Bookmark company pages with social bookmark tools like del.icio.us
- Hand out coupons to people they know
There are 100’s of variations of this kind of buzz creating opportunity. The most important thing to remember is that one or two of these things occasionally is not going to do much. If you successfully build a culture of buzz and a culture where every employee feels like they are responsible for the success of the organization, then you will be able to sustain the buzz effort and eventually hit a crucial mass where you have customers lining up for what you have to offer.
The best part of this whole thing is that this technique costs less than traditional marketing and advertising and word of mouth is shown to be one of the most effective and influential mediums to get your message out to potential customers. It is well worth the extra effort, and in a relatively short period of time it will be paying off.
Posted in Buzz, Internet Marketing, Small Business | No Comments »