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Marketing Tips For This Week

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edition
I've been involved in a number of webinars and mastermind groups this week and taking all kinds of notes, although I know by now that the secret to success is to act on the things that I learn. And I am trying, small steps at a time:)

Anyway, here are the main takeaways I got from this week. Any comments of mine will be in brackets after the tips - which are in no particular order.

  1. PDF's rank highly in Google. Turn some of your material into PDF's and then look for PDF directories and submit them - Scribd is one of the PDF directories. If you have ebooks to give away, do the same with free ebook directories. (I've started to put some of my materials in PDF format to download from my websites, but haven't used a directory yet. And if you need a quick way to create PDF files, use Open Office to create your document and then click the handy little PDF icon on the toolbar to create the file.)
  2. Don't say 'submit' on your opt-in form, instead use 'register for ..., or get ..., and then be very specific about what they will receive. (Not doing very well with this tip so far. On this very blog I say 'submit'. On my other ones, I usually say 'Sign Up', which is better, but only on one of my sites was I specific about what they would receive as a result. No wonder my list building is going so slowly.)
  3. Start off the comments on your blog posts. Then when others see it, they are more likely to comment as well. (Haven't done this yet either, so guess I'll start by commenting on this very post.)
  4. I thought this was a great idea from Dan Morris - if you need an image to go with a blog post,use an image from Amazon and then as well as providing a visual, if someone clicks through, it's your affiliate link and if they purchase anything, you earn a commission. (I've done this for the first time on this post. Even if no one clicks through, it's an easy way for me to add a related image without spending forever to look for one.)
  5. Re-purpose any really long posts as pdf's or create a short video or audio for each of the points covered in the article. (Another one I haven't done yet, and with a Flip camera to shoot Youtube videos and the FreeConferenceCalling service to do audios, I really have no excuse. In fact, I am starting to do audios for some of the posts on another blog as we speak. If I could only clone myself, I would be much faster - and yes, I know I can outsource, but I want my voice.)
  6.  Promote a book by releasing a free pdf of the first chapter. (Another no - not doing so well on this checklist so far. But I do have a book in progress, does that count?)
  7. Keep posts current by updating them with links or new information every so often. (I really like this tip since some of my blogs have a lot of content and I hate the thought that all of the old stuff is probably not being read. The only thing I'm not sure about is if you leave the original date of publishing or update it? I would think you would leave it so your blog still looks like it's been around for a long time, but not sure. If anyone knows, please let me know. And if I find out from my pals at the Clicknewz forum, I'll tell you.)
  8. For every link or bookmark of your own you submit to bookmarking sites,also submit 3 of other people's. Keep that 3 to 1 ratio. (I have not tried bookmarking yet at all. I know my daughter Melanie bookmarks all the time, so I need to get her to teach me. Or, since she's also my virtual assistant, I could just get her to do it for me.)
  9. Offer to guest blog when you know people are traveling or very busy. (I have done guest blogging, although it has usually been on a long-term basis and after awhile, we both usually run out of time and ideas for one another's blog posts. So I think I would prefer to do this on a one time or limited arrangement.)
  10. Write an ezine article every week. (I have written a number of these, although not so much recently. I was doing better for awhile because EzineArticles had a plugin I could use on my Wordpress website. Then it was simply a matter of adding to the content of one of my blog posts and submitting with the click of a button. But it seems that plugin is no longer in use, I guess because it also made it much easier for spammers to submit articles quickly. I need to schedule myself to write these every week, post them on my site, and then on an article directory.)
  11. Check out quora.com if you haven't already. (I had never heard of this site and still don't use it regularly, but I seem to get followers fairly quickly.)
  12. Concentrate on 4 things: building your list, branding yourself, creating products of your own, and joint ventures with others. (I'm working on the first three items, number four is way beyond me right now. But maybe after NAMS in August...)
  13. If you start a regular BlogTalk radio show, you can submit to iTunes, use your show content for the search engines, and re-purpose the content.(I'll tell you more about all of that later. I signed up for a course starting next week with Cindi Dawson and Joe Marsh. I have done BlogTalk radio shows twice now, once my own and once as a guest, but I have no idea how to re-purpose the content.)
I know, 13 tips - take them as a baker's dozen rather than a superstitious number. Special thanks to Lynn Terry for her expertise. Many of the above tips came as a result of the weekly mastermind of the Elite forum at Clicknewz.  Now it's your turn. Please comment and add what you've learned this week.

Until next time,
Carol

Comments

  1. This post has been up for about a minute and I realized I made a mistake which will have to stay that way because I have no idea how to fix it.

    My mistake: When I add a link to another site, I want it to open in a new window so that my readers aren't taken away to another site. Sure they could press the back arrow, but from experience, I know people often don't do that. In Wordpress, I have the option to open the link in a new window, but with Blogger, I have no idea how to do that.

    Help anyone? Calling Dan Morris or Melanie Bremner - I need your techiexpertise please.

    ReplyDelete

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