Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Secret News Keyword Strategy I probably shouldn't tell...

(photo credit: Bullish Bankers)

Secret News Keyword Strategy I probably shouldn't tell...

Here's a dirt-simple method I just twigged on - and I'm telling this, first because you should know a fast way to get on top of breaking trends before they become too saturated for marketing, and second - because it's probably not now a secret. And besides that, anyone whose been following this blog faithfully deserves whatever I can give them. Finally, I'm not going to be using it - because my type of content takes too long to come up with to do this daily, unless research shows this to be wildly profitable...

This keyword strategy is designed to put you at the front of every rising trend with the exact profitable keyword phrases, based on what mainstream news media is shouting from the roof tops (whether it's true, makes sense, or not)

The secret keyword strategy sequence:
  1. You know Google Trends, right? News is down there on the bottom graph. Take the top news sites (I suppose you could do this with top blogs, as long as they change daily) and use a keyword tool to scrape what Search Engines will say their keywords are.
  2. Now, take that keyword list and run it through a KEI generator, like Rank-Tracker (no, I'm not an affiliate, I just like the tool) - and find out what people are actually looking for which is related to what is in the news. KEI of 3 or above, at least 20 or above on daily searches.
  3. Work out your R/S quotient and line these up that way - which will give you profitable keyword phrases with the lowest competition for the demand. Work on these first.
  4. Then you simply write good link-bait copy and link to products.

And repeat this as much as you can that day - hell, if it works out like it looks, you could afford to hire people to write copy for you. Reason being is that you can use this method to get on the rising side of trends and establish your market base before that market becomes saturated. The next day, you start over. The trick is to get in, find the exact keyword, pop up some short posts with a link to a product that assists/solves that problem - and is available for immediate download. Call it "the secret of news niche marketing".

Obviously, a saturated market has low KEI and high R/S ratio, even when the traffic dies off (the other profitable side of the market curve). And the only one's making income in that scene are big box stores with tons of very cheap inventory - and can compete on price.

But doing the above gets you out ahead of the field, ahead of that curve.

The downside of this is that its entirely possible - since people don't trust the news - that they are barking up the wrong tree and are way behind the curve. They do tend to run in herds - and occasionally off cliffs all together.

(And if I were a journalist or had one as a buddy, I'd key them in on this strategy. This is the way they could find and get ahead of rising trends by finding which subjects are actively being looked up - and have peoples' interest - and which are already saturated with tons of competing pages/stories already. And guess what - your scoop won't be what you think it is... But your readership will climb as you always are writing ahead of the curve and can - mostly - start spotting a nascent trend. Tip: take your keyword and put it back into Google Trends to see what it's doing - write on all the uptrending ones.)

Don't understand some of these terms? OK, then either skip this post, or look them up. Hate to do this to you, but this post is for SEO-savvy people - and only those who are smart enough to find this blog. If you are natively that smart and want to understand what I just said, you can search this blog, as I've gone over this material before. The answers are all there.

Good Hunting!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Looking over your own shoulder at yourself - modern social marketing

(photo credit: Pbase.com)

Sometimes, you have to look over your own shoulder at yourself - to see whether your coming or going.

And that's social marketing in an elevator pitch.

I often find myself digesting some new piece of data for days. I'm an editor and graphic designer, so I usually extract it from the format it came in - right down to straight text. Then I reformat it so it's readable and edit it as I go. Then I'll format it into a really readable version.

In doing this, I study the material at least three times. If it's in rough shape, I'll rearrange it to make better sense - or just extract the valuable stuff and use it.

That's one method of learning.

Often, since this takes away from the promotion or editing or other work I should be doing, I tend to question whether it's worth it.

But in social media, we are always questioning ourselves to make sure that what we are doing is valuable and not just following some huckster's pitch into that dark alley where his partners wait...

Because we care about the conversations we are part of and the people we associate with.

If you do this outline above, it's a bunch of hard work - niggling stuff. But you get to know what that author is talking about on a personal level. You make it your own. And then you go out to apply it and improve what you're doing before.

But if you never question yourself -- that's a pure, golden road to arrogance.

And so, it's better to take three steps forward and two back, but still make progress.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Getting started in Online Marketing - the easy way

(photo credit: Massety.com)

How to get started in Online eCommerce - the easy way.

It's taken me some time to get my tail to follow my lead. I have been so extensively researching how things work, that I haven't taken the time to make them work for me. Essentially, I never set up my own backend to work.

Let me tell you the basics of how to get started (and let you get on with it).
  1. Get some good hosting with cPanel. This is the control panel for your site. Don't accept any hosting that doesn't have it.
  2. Buy a domain name cheaply from a domain-name provider. Don't buy this through your webhost, as it may not belong to you if you decide to move. Transfer this domain name over to your webhost.
  3. Log into your webhost and open up cPanel (usually http://yourdomainname.com/cpanel).
  4. Go down into Fantastico.
  5. Install a WordPress blog.
  6. Download and install wp-e-commerce plug-in for WordPress.
  7. Configure this and populate it with salable products - either digital downloads or drop-shipped items.

At that point, you're set to go. Really. That simple.

Sure, there's tons of stuff to apply to your new site about promotion and marketing and all that sort of stuff. You will be doing this from here on out.

But first, you get some valuable products for sale and set these up so you can sell them. Then you promote.

Too simple.

Life is actually that way, you know...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Pithy video please - how to lose subscribers by being over-verbose

(photo credit: Time.com)

Keep It Pithy Video Please - how to lose subscribers by being over-verbose

Another example hit my email today - just where I don't want it. Someone decided that the way to add value was to create a 1 hour and 12 minute instructional video.

I suppose they never thought how much bandwidth and computer resources that would take to download. Yet this is targeted for "newbies". I'm not going to download it, and I don't have time to "start watching it and then come back to it." Essentially, this violates the basic principle of the Internet: "Valuable Content Fast".

I like my bandwidth, but it's throttled at various times due to too much too fast. Excessive videos tend to take it over the top. And I've mentioned before that if you really want acceptance, you'll create alternative versions of the same data. PDF's, small MP3's, text files, RSS feeds from blogs, images posted to image sharing sites like Flickr, PowerPoints to slideshare.net, etc.

In this case, they should have broken it up into smaller chunks and then created a mini-course around it. You then have interaction, especially if you set it up for people to leave comments. Make each video clip about 3-5 minutes, and provide a PDF workbook as a download for every single section. This would give you 22 sections for that overlong video to have that much data in it. (But more than likely, a lot of that edited hour would wind up on the cutting room floor...)

And every section allows you to get more exposure to your PPC ads, affiliate links, and own products.

You have to always keep the "win-win" proposition in mind. Make your product and information easily accessible and easily sharable.

Keep it pithy, please - replaces/augments "Keep it stupidly simple."

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Telemarketing Scam: Money Back - How to get it..

(photo credit: solarpowerrocks.com)

How to get your money back from a telemarketing scam.

If you've been the victim of high-pressure, smooth-talking telemarketers - but aren't getting your full money refunded - here's a simple way to get all your money back - complain to every government agency you can find. That might include elected officials in your state and the state that company is physically located in. That's the secret - they are physically located somewhere. And their owners exist and have physical addresses. Those addresses have government agencies who monitor deceptive practices. So: complain like hell to every agency you can find, not just the BBB.
repsaver.com : "I came upon this website and read what Debbie wrote. It works it really works. Complain to EVERY agency out there. I was in complete shock. I received all my money back in FULL. I was about to give up. My bank did not want to help me. They said since I paid with my debit card that they could not do anything. (Chase) When I read Debbie's complaint about the company I decided to use her information and run with it. I wrote to the FCC, all the local and state agencies. I filed 3 complaints in the state where the company is from too (Utah). The BBB was absolutely NO HELP!!! It's going to be a lot of faxing, calling and writing but ALL well worth it. I got a letter in the mail from PCS apologizing for the misunderstanding 2 weeks from the start of my complaint frenzy. They have FULLY refunded my money. The letter I received had one catch. I would have to stop filing complaints about them to state agencies."
This just goes to show you that the "squeaky wheel" does indeed get the grease.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Direct Marketing over to Social Media Marketing - a strategy

(photo credit: Wolf Tracking)

Moving from Direct Marketing over to Social Media Marketing - a strategy (that might just work...)

Anyone covering this blog for the last year will see that I went into a "quietus" as I researched eBay (expensively and at length). And then find me rolling along into Jack Humphreys' rather involved methods of training people to become "Authorities" in their chosen niche. As well, I checked out a very user-friendly "30-Day" program (link eludes me at this point).

Today, while riding on my tractor picking corn (does wonders for intensive thought to be away from computers) - anyway, I found that I had completed all the training I needed to do. I now feel I know how to move from conventional marketing over to social modes.

A Summation

Basic facts:
  1. Social media is social, not broadcast. They reject broadcast announcements here and embrace personalities who interact, not just pontificate.
  2. The basics of marketing work - if you throw out the methodologies of the 50's-80's and start embracing the core principles from history - the local community marketplace/bazaar/farmers' market. (Visit one of these festivals with small booths selling a handful of items and you'll see what I mean.)
  3. Problem is that marketers are trained (even today) to do broadcast methodology, not socially interact. And the largest corporations are having the hardest time with this. Smaller start-ups almost intuitively embrace these features, since they personally only deal with a handful of staff and can talk with their handful of customers on a one-to-one basis as well.
  4. There are actually broadcast technologies within social media. These are the bookmarking sites. You are supposed to put your bookmarks up there. And the most popular bookmarks win.
  5. However, self-promotion is frowned upon. Posting your own stuff up on the "news" sites will get you banned sooner or later.
  6. Basic principle: develop word of mouth.
  7. Basic technique: craft clever link-bait that people will talk about and make this easily sharable.
  8. That's pretty simple for corporate trained marketers, since this is their stock in trade. However, properly done - the ROI or conversion rate is much, much higher with social media, since you can get free evangelists to do your marketing for you. (See "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell as an introduction to this concept.)
The trick to social marketing and word of mouth

Trick is to get the ball rolling, since if you are an individual - they don't know you. If you are a corporation, you are in the hole - since they don't trust you.

Jack Humphrey pointed out one hole in this, along with his own technique of making yourself an "authority". Essentially you craft your link-bait and then "buzz" it yourself by using free blogs that you control and post links back to your link-bait on your main blog. He also says to contribute back to these communities by posting links though those free blogs to other areas, in ways that each free-blog community would embrace and appreciate. The more you contribute useful posts and comments in your niche, the more people trust you and look to you as as an authority in that niche. Your traffic goes up and then you can convert this to sales.

Why use a blog? Because it is an easy way to add content and update it. Plus it has built-in community support through comments. Google loves blogs more than corporate sites - because they are more popular, and popular content drives blog use (and advertising).

Here's the interesting part. Through various programs like the Blog-Rovr plug-in for Firefox, and also using Google Alert (now with RSS feeds), you can keep track of influencer's and evangelists in your niche and comment on their blog posts. That piques their interest eventually, and they start visiting and linking to your blog. Meanwhile, you post from your main-blog with links to these - which then then give you a trackback for, which increases your link-love.

You also apply these same tools to see who is linking to your main blog. Track them, comment on their blogs. Also do this for appropriate forums and groups.

You also need to do articles, podcasts, and videos, but your main approach above is to:
  1. Create Linkbait Weekly.
  2. Bookmark (OnlyWire) each one to as many as possible.
  3. Buzz your linkbait - using varied text and graphics - from as many free blogs as possible (preferably several overseas as well).
  4. Track posts about your blog and return the favor - both blogging about their site and also commenting on their blog posts.
  5. Also track anyone who posts anything about you, post and comment as above.
  6. Similarly, track forums and groups - both post and comment.
  7. In your spare time, put up viral media - such as articles, podcasts, videos, and anything else that comes along. All prominently feature your main blog - and link back to these as simply as possible. (You'll need to overlay your blog address on the video, for instance, as well as getting a live link in the comments.)

It almost goes without saying that you are answering questions and interacting realistically/honestly with everyone who posts and comments.

Means a lot of work on your part. Welcome to the geek club.

Where's sales and monetization in all this?

You also still have have some part of your week devoted to creating more products to offer and getting them sold - your backend.

What you want is followers and subscribers. Preferably paid subscribers. Possibly eBay's one contribution to this is that you can get a "reverse funnel" (they buy first and then subscribe) from selling on eBay and getting them to your site. You really want them to opt-in to your mail list and then use the various write-ups on sales pages, repetitive contact, a "sales funnel" of increasingly higher valued/priced items - and ultimately turning them into affiliates and evangelists for your site (as well as starting them over from the beginning of your funnel with the new products you are creating all the time).

And this last paragraph above is the subject of several posts and ebooks. Too much to go into here.

- - - -

And now you see how to move from gratuitous broadcast marketer to a social marketing genius, in just a few steps outlined above.

I'll tell you that it isn't easy; it's a lot of work. But then, so is marketing as you may have understood it up to this point...

Waste Affiliate MoJo on Not-Your-Niche Products.

How to Waste Your Affiliate Mojo on Not-Your-Niche Products.

Just saw a post from Jeremy Vaught about sticking to your niche - and only niches. And this brings up how you can simply waste all your time trying to promote affiliate products you know nothing about and could care less - just the money, honey.

There is no - "just the money, honey" - in life. Check out Earl Nightingale's "Strangest Secret" or his "Lead the Field Series". You only get money after you've contributed something of value to someone else.

That's what I found on eBay - if your aim in life is to become a Big Box retailer, sure you can "make money" on eBay. You are retailing things/stuff/schlock for just above your cost to people who believe they are getting a real bargain. However, not all of us want or are interested in being the next Sam Walton.

Find your niche and market from there (niche-market). Sure, you can expand to related niches, but that's the point - you have an option. If you like retailing and selling - great, be that. But retailers and salesmen have their own niches they operate in. Wal-Mart doesn't try to cover everything possible - they have key items from most the key categories people want. The products are fair-enough quality, but are cheap enough so they can make a profit and still undersell just about everyone.

The story I tell, though, is about the Wal-Mart bicycle repairman. There isn't one, of course. This town was all up in arms because a Wal-Mart was coming in, just outside of town. Doom and gloom was settling in. This bicycle shop owner went in when they opened up, looked around, and came back to put a sign in his store. It read, "Can you tell me the name of the Wal-Mart bicycle repairman." And his business boomed. Sure, they might by a cheap bike at Wal-Mart - but they'd bring it to him to get assembled, and adjusted, and repaired. His traffic and income increased because he was able to amplify the demand in his own niche.

It's not like your mojo got up and went because you have some "new competition". The best way to deal with "competition" is to out-create them in your niche. Don't try to compete with them on their terms. Raising prices because you have much better-quality items and give real personal service and all sorts of qualified technical advice from your niche - that will bring tons of new and repeat traffic into your shop. As long as you mean it. But cutting prices when you can't possibly compete with a mega-store - where your product is just one of several thousand they stock... sure suicide.

Look Jack Humphrey is still pretty much unknown, although he cuts a wide swath in his particular niche. And pulls down 10's of thousands every month - because he is very good at his particular staked out territory in Internet Marketing. But you hardly hear a mention of him in social media circles - unless they are also into Internet Marketing. But Jack thrives on social media... that's what he's selling to people: how to market their stuff via social media.

Social Media, however, doesn't even see him. Because it is so vast it covers the entire realm of the Internet. And all the social media gurus have their own interests. Sure, they market, but few are devotedly into that niche - they are into their own niche.

And that's the point. Look, become an expert in one little thing and then find affiliate or your own product which solves that one little thing. And if you promote it right and get yourself known - everyone looking for that one little thing will come to you for your solution.

The guy who invented the better mousetrap and got the world stomping a new path to his door - he didn't also work on rat-traps, beaver-traps, bear-traps, politician-traps. He perfected his one little mousetrap. Now, once this is successfully bringing in income, he is able to perfect other models, and perhaps take on other denizens of the house - yes, rats, but probably cockroaches, flies, moths, wasps, spiders - and all sorts of things that people who want mice out of their house would also like help with.

So - invest you mojo in your one niche. And keep it there. Wild oats goes only so far when spread to the winds. Keep it in your own field and expect a grand and bountiful harvest.