Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

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What Do You Do When Social Media Doesn’t Work?

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Wet FloorWhat do you do if you’re active in social media but it’s not helping your small business?

Dear Rich,

I run a commercial cleaning business and I’ve been using social media for almost a year. I have been blogging three times a week, creating videos, and tweeting several times a day. We have a Facebook page that gets updated multiple times a day but has very few fans and only my employees and family members engage with it, and only when I threaten them! Even when we ran a contest with an iPad 2 as a prize we only got a handful of new likers.

We set up a Google+ page for our business, but almost no one has circled us, despite the fact that we’re putting out fresh content daily.

Most importantly, in looking at our traffic reports, almost no traffic comes from our social media activity, and none of our new clients mention social media when we ask how they found us.

What are we doing wrong? I feel like I’m banging my head against the wall.

–Confounded in Cornish

(more…)

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Posted in Entrepreneur & Small Business, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media | 4 Comments »


12 Web Marketing Articles to Build Your Business

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

flyte crew - 2011The best web marketing articles of 2011…that appeared on our website.

Which is still pretty good. Because you know, we don’t just publish any old crap.

Here’s the last 12 months of articles that appeared in your inboxes if you’re a subscriber to the flyte log, our award winning web marketing email newsletter.

Well, that’s that!

Have you signed up for the flyte log email newsletter yet? When you do, you get the following articles only available to subscribers:

  • 10 Questions to Ask Before Setting Up a Website
  • The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make
  • 10 Questions to Ask Before Setting Up a Facebook Business Page
  • The 11 Commandments of Writing Web Copy for the Non-Copywriter

 May 2012 be your most prosperous year yet!

Rich Brooks
Internet Marketer

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Web Design & Development, Web Marketing | 2 Comments »


Attend BlogWorld in LA…In Your Pajamas!

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

Attend BlogWorld in LA with a Virtual Ticket and see more than you would if you were there.

I’ll be attending my 6th BlogWorld next week, and although I’ll miss the Vegas scene, I’m looking forward to connecting with remote friends and learning from the best and the brightest marketers out there.

I haven’t promoted my presentation there (more on that in a moment) because to be honest, I know LA is a long haul for most of you. Besides the cost of hotel, travel & food, there’s also all that time away from your business and family.

Even when I heard about the “Virtual Ticket“, it didn’t immediately grab my attention. I mean, many of these type of events are live streamed these days, so what makes BlogWorld’s Virtual Ticket any different?

But here’s why the BlogWorld Virtual Ticket totally rocks:

  • You can attend all of the 100+ sessions, even when they’re on at the same time! Plus you’ll get bonus material, including speaker info, extra material, audio and video, and more!
  • You’ll get behind the scenes extras, including exclusive interviews with speakers, attendees and more.
  • You’ll get all of this at a fraction of the cost of a real ticket.
  • You’ll get to attend the session I’m doing with Denise Wakeman entitled ‘Hey Bloggers!’ How to Package, Promote & Profit from Your Expertise .
  • Did I mention the part about your pajamas?

Are you ready to learn more and purchase your virtual ticket?

Here’s the deal: while I can’t vouch for the virtual ticket because I have never missed a BlogWorld I can vouch for the event itself. Of all the conferences and events I attend, this is the event where I learn the most, get the best information, and have the most valuable takeaways. Period.

If you’re looking to increase your online visibility, improve your search engine rank, and build your business, you owe it to yourself to check out the BlogWorld Virtual Ticket.

Rich Brooks
BlogWorld Aficionado

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Web Marketing | 2 Comments »


The Ultimate Guide to Blogging for SEO

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Contributor! 2x Better Than Participant

If you’re looking for the “ultimate guide to blogging for SEO,” look no further than this recent post that I contributed to the Social Media Examiner.

In it, you’ll find a whole bunch of great tips, tricks, plugins, resources and tactics so that your blog will rank higher, drive more qualified leads to your site, and allow you to conquer the universe. (Known universe–ed.)

The title they gave my post, Ultimate Blogger’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization, was not my idea. The title makes it sound like this guide to SEO is from the Ultimate Blogger. I’m good, but ultimate? Not there yet.

In other news, they sent over this cool badge of “Scout,” the SME mascot for being a regular contributor to Social Media Examiner, which is pretty sweet.

They also asked me what my next topic will be, and I’m stumped. If you have any suggestions, please let me know! What’s the one thing in social media you’d like to know more about?

Best answer gets a hug or a tour of the flyte new media offices…your call.

Rich Brooks
Contributor

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Web Marketing | 3 Comments »


Greetings, Fellow Bloggers!

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Blogworld Expo NY 2011In just a couple of hours I’ll be presenting How to Dominate Google and Bing with Your Blog at the BlogWorld Expo here in NYC. If you happen to be checking out our web marketing blog, flyte blog, for the first time because of this, here are a few things you should know:

  • Consider subscribing to our blog either by using the RSS feed or the email subscription to your right. You can always unsubscribe.
  • We’ve got a great resource in The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make. I hand crafted each one of those mistakes, so why not learn from my mistakes rather than your own? Cheaper that way, you know. There is an email registration piece, but again, you can unsubscribe at any time.
  • We’ve got an all SEO, all the time blog over at Maine SEO Blog written by our search engine marketer, Nicki Hicks with some contributions by yours truly. You don’t have to be from Maine to enjoy it.
  • Since Nicki’s moving to Florida (but still working for flyte), she’s started a new blog, Florida SEO Blog. Please give it some love.

That’s all! Now I just have to get the world’s biggest cup of coffee and head over the Javits Convention Center. Feel free to say hello!

Rich Brooks
You Can Also Find Me On The Twitter

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, flyte news, Search Engine Marketing | 3 Comments »


Why We Blog: It’s About the Visibility, Stupid

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

This post goes out to my good friend Braden Buehler who was looking for real world examples of how blogging can help increase your visibility, online and off. I’ve got dozens of examples, but here’s a recent one.

It wasn’t too long ago that I became aware of QR codes and how they could be used for marketing. I went to see a local presentation on QR marketing and blogged my thoughts in a post called What is a QR Code? What is QR Marketing? I followed up with a post called Should You Use QR Codes in Email Marketing?

Soon after that I wrote a blog post for Fast Company called 13 Creative Ways to Use QR Codes for Marketing. I also contribute to Social Media Examiner and pitched them on a post on QR Codes, but they already had one in the hopper. Too late.

I also wrote an article (you remember articles, right? blog posts’ older brother?) called QR Code Marketing for Small Business that I posted to our website.

I pitched a story for 207–an evening news magazine that uses me once a month or so for tech stories–on QR codes. They posted the segment to their website and I embedded it in our blog under the header, QR Codes Explained on TV [Video].

I followed all this up with another blog post called 50–Count’em, 50!–Creative Uses of QR Codes. (The bigger the number the more likely people are to retweet it, I’m discovering. At current count the post has 143 retweets and over 100 likes on Facebook.)

What happened next?

I got a call from CNN. (Yes, that CNN.) They were doing a story on QR codes and wanted to interview me.

How did CNN find me?

The same way any of us find information, they Googled for it. I’m not sure which post or article caught their eye, or maybe it was that I had multiple results for QR-related searches on the first page of Google. Whatever the case was, they interviewed me and a few weeks later they ran a story on CNN.com called Marketers Embracing QR Codes for Better or Worse. I was quoted extensively through the article, and they even linked to flyte. (Thanks, CNN!)

For a while that article came up in the top results in the news section. Friends who I hadn’t talked to in a while had read the article (it was featured on the home page of CNN) and reached out. It definitely helped raise flyte’s profile.

QR Code Search ResultsWhat’s the outcome?

Right now the top 3 results for “qr code marketing” are:

  • 50 Creative Uses of QR Codes in Marketing & Communications – from the flyte blog
  • QR Code Marketing for Small Business – from flyte.biz
  • 13 Creative Ways to Use QR Codes for Marketing – from FastCompany.com, with links back to our blog and my Twitter profile

That’s pretty good since we only started writing and blogging about QR codes about three months ago. And we’re not experts in QR codes. And we’re beating out people with a lot more experience and clout than we have, at least in this arena.

What’s the takeaway?

That you can do this, too. Yes, it took work. I had to write 4 or 5 posts and articles. I understand a bit about SEO so I wrote my titles with good keywords and cross-linked them. But it led to CNN finding me, and I didn’t have to hire a PR firm. In just the past month thousands of people have visited our website and blog who never would have heard of us otherwise. And I don’t have to pay for people to click on my links like the sponsored ads above my results.

And if you can’t do this, because you absolutely can’t write, or don’t have the patience to blog, or can’t find the time because you’re too busy “running your company”…well, then, you can always hire us to blog for you.

#justsayin

Rich Brooks
Will Blog for SEO

Photo credit: Alberto P. Veiga

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing | 3 Comments »


Yellow Page Ads: How to Maximize Your Yellow Page ROI

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Phone Book Tunnel

So, you’ve been running a Yellow Page ad for several years and it’s not generating the business it used to. Is it the size of the ad? The colors or lack of colors? Is the design too busy or too plain? How do you get more ROI (return on investment) for your Yellow Pages ad?

Cut it in half.

That’s right; when the Yellow Pages rep comes knocking this year cut your ad spending in half. The reason is that no one uses the Yellow Pages any more. The only time I use the Yellow Pages is if I see a bug infestation in my house. To call an exterminator? No, to crush the little buggers under that 10lb, yellow-stained block of dead trees they send me every year without asking.

OK, I hear you: you’re in a business where people still use the Yellow Pages…like you repair fax machines or you manufacture AOL install disks. That’s why I suggest not stopping your ad spending all together, but rather cutting it in half. If you didn’t know this, the Yellow Pages has a service where they’ll set you up with a special 800 number that appears only in the phone book…that way you can measure how many leads actually come from the book.

So, what do you do with your new found cash? Start putting some of it towards your online marketing budget instead, and measure that. With the money you save you could hire a copywriter to create a new, keyword-rich blog post once a week.

At the end of a year of your Yellow Page ad you need to renew your ad buy. New books arrive and the old ones are recycled. (At our house the new ones are recycled, too, but that’s a different story.) Any benefit, any sales you got out of that ad are now done and in the past.

At the end of a year of SEO copywriting for your blog you’ve got 52 keyword-rich blog posts…52 unique opportunities to rank well at the search engines for the type of searches your best prospects are doing. At it doesn’t end at the end of the year…those blog posts will continue to bring in traffic for as long as you keep your blog running. In reviewing the statistics for this blog, one post I wrote back in October of 2008 continues to bring in hundreds of unique visitors a month. No 2008 Yellow Page ad is going to do that.

And yes, of course you could write your own blog posts and pocket the money, but maybe you’re too busy. After all, you’re running a business. Plus, I’m trying to compare apples to apples here to show you the benefit.

And yes, there are other web marketing options open to you besides business blogging. You could improve your website’s search engine visibility with some SEO, start an email newsletter, or engage in social media marketing and communication. Any of these options will take advantage of the well-established, well-documented trend of people leaving the Yellow Pages for the Internet and the mobile web.

Whatever you do with your marketing dollar, make sure you measure the results to see what’s really working. Make sure Google Analytics (or something similar) is installed on your site, have your receptionist or inside sales force ask how the prospect heard of you, use a special phone number and other tracking techniques. The important lesson here is to use the tools that your prospects and customers use. If they start using smoke signals, you better light a fire.

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing for Small Business

Photo credit: Coaly Bunny

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Marketing | No Comments »


Magnetic SEO: What Electromagnets Can Teach Us About SEO

Thursday, January 13th, 2011
Electrmagnetic SEO

SEO is Child's Play, Really..

If you want to improve your SEO (search engine optimization) and attract more prospects to your web site, you’d do well to study the electromagnet.

Wait! Don’t click away! This isn’t some über-geek post meant to complicate the situation. Building your own electromagnet requires only a long nail, a thin wire and a battery. In other words, DO try this at home.

Connect the ends of the wire to the positive and negative ends of the battery and wrap the wire around the nail. The longer the nail, the stronger the magnet. The more times the wire is wrapped around the nail, the stronger the magnet.

Your SEO works just like an electromagnet.

To build a search engine optimized site you’ll want to create keyword-rich pages for each of your services or offerings. These act like the nails in the electomagnet. Just as iron nails work better than aluminum nails in this project, quality content that informs, engages and persuades will be more attractive to your audience.

Your blog posts act like the wire in the electromagnet. You should create blog posts that wrap around the content on your web pages. If you have a page on your house painting services, you should create blog posts on:

  • Home Painting Tips for the Do-It-Yourselfer
  • How to Choose the Perfect Exterior Paint
  • Why White is the Wrong Color to Paint Your Bathrooms
  • 10 Questions to Ask Your Painter Before The Job Starts
  • and so on.

Each one of these should include keyword-rich links back to the page on your site that talks about your house painting services.

The more blog posts you have “wrapped” around your core service pages, the more electromagnetic juice you have flowing to your web site, and the more attractive your site becomes.

What’s the battery in this metaphor? Hmmm…not sure. Maybe it’s the desire of your prospects to find the solution to their problems or needs? Or maybe it’s the passion you bring with your content creation? Or maybe it’s the power of the Interwebs? Or maybe I’m just trying too hard to extend the metaphor.

I just finished writing an article that goes into more detail about creating an effective web presence for service professionals, albeit without the electromagnet metaphor.

Rich Brooks
Maine SEO

Photo Credit: steve_lodefink

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Copywriting, Web Design & Development, Web Marketing | 4 Comments »


The Blogging Masters Telesummit: Free Sneak Preview

Friday, October 29th, 2010

No jokes. Too obvious.

If you’ve been reading this blog, or have been subjected to my email newsletters, tweets, Facebook status updates, LinkedIn profile, or just got cornered by me at a networking event with a scotch in my hand, then you know that I can’t say enough about blogging.

While a blog won’t save your business, blogging can help you with the following:

  • improve your search engine visibility
  • attract more prospects, customers and clients to your business (or non-profit)
  • establish your expertise
  • drive more qualified leads to your site
  • help you sell more products, especially virtual, knowledge-based products.

In short, the blog is the keystone for your online visibility and your web marketing.

If you’re looking to learn more about how to blog successfully, I’ve got the blogging telesummit for you, and the best news is that you can experience it for free.


The Blogging Masters Telesummit is a 13-part virtual conference with 12 blogging gurus…and me. Here’s who’s involved:

  • Denise Wakeman – “The Viral Blogging System: 4 Simple Ways To Multiply Your Blog Content And Spread Your Message Virally Throughout The Web”
  • Gideon Shalwick - “The 7-Step Video Blogging Blueprint That Helps You Dominate The Search Engines, Drives Massive Traffic To Your Blogs, And Positions You As The Industry Expert”
  • Elisa Camahort Page – “BlogSourcing Secrets: How To Get Your Blogging Audiences’ Help In Creating The Perfect Live Event And Packing The Room With Thousands Of Raving Fans”
  • Jack Humphrey - “How To Become A Local Business Celebrity Through The Power Of Blogging That Attracts All The New Clients, Sales And Partners You Can Handle”
  • Regina Smola - “How To Secure Your Blogs From Hackers, Spammers, And Viruses That Will Save You Time, Money And Maybe Even Your Business”
  • Barry Chandler – “How To Use The Power Of Blogging To Quickly Go From Being An Unknown In Your Industry To The Go-To Authority That Everyone Wants to Partner With”
  • Chris Cree – “The Beehive Method: The New Media Marketing System That Gets New Clients And Prospects Buzzing About You And Swarming To Your Business”
  • Vinil Ramdev – “How To Quickly And Easily Dominate Your Niche By Creating An ‘Authority Blog’ Without Needing A Big List, A Big Name Or A Big Social Media Following”
  • Erik Deckers – “The Ghostblogging Method: How To Outsource Your Blogging To Others In Order To Save Time, Get More Clients, And Build Your Blogging Empire”
  • Kary Rogney – “The Tribe Syndication Method That Builds An Extremely Powerful Blog Following And Drives Massive Amounts Of Traffic To Your Websites”
  • Bill McRea – “The 5 Step Autoblogging System That Quickly Multiplies Your Blog Marketing Empire And Makes You Money On Autopilot”
  • Matt Trainer - “The Autoblogging Blueprint: A Proven Step-By-Step Blogging Strategy To Making $1 Million Per Month In The Next 180 Days”

Oh, and some guy named Rich Brooks who’s doing a session on “How To Quickly And Easily Turn A Boring Business Blog Into A Powerful Lead Generation Machine That Brings You A Flood Of Highly-Qualified Prospects Like Clockwork.” Ummm…I didn’t come up with that title.

There will be a paid version of the telesummit where you can pay to download all the sessions, but by following this link you can view all the sessions for free.

Enjoy!

Rich Brooks
The 13th Guy

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Web Marketing | 2 Comments »


How Much Time Should You Dedicate to Blogging?

Friday, September 10th, 2010

MeetingOne of the big questions/concerns people have around business blogging is how much time does it take?

This is a legitimate question because in any economy, whether you’re failing, surviving or thriving, chances are you’re already working more than the 40 hours which was the norm when you were growing up.

Plus, when you were a kid you didn’t realize that cooking, cleaning, transporting to soccer/karate/ballet classes, travel time to and from work, mowing the lawn, fixing the lawnmower/heating/plumbing, reading bed time stories, coaching little league, laundry and fill-in-your-own activity would also count towards all your spent time on the planet. Plus sleeping 8 (hah!) hours a day.

So, how much time should you dedicate to blogging?

Well, I do the marketing, sales & communication for my company; in fact, I’d say that my primary job function is generating inbound leads for flyte. Blogging is one of the best ways to generate leads. I know this because our web marketing blog has the highest conversion rate for referrers at our web site. That means, the people who come to our web site from our blog are the most likely to fill out our contact form, which is the main way we get new business.

In my opinion, as long as you’re not just pumping out crap, you can’t blog enough. The mental shift you need to make is that blogging is marketing; blogging is increasing your online visibility; blogging is sales.

Blogging is customer acquisition, it’s customer support, it’s customer retention.

Blogging is the answer to the question your prospect just asked on Google. If you blogged the answer last week or last month or last year, Google might lead that prospect to your blog.

But, and that is a very big but:

Don’t let the fear that you can’t blog as often as I might suggest stop you from blogging at all. If you can commit to blogging just once a week–500 words or less–at the end of the year you’ll have 52 blog posts that can answer questions posted at Google or Bing, drive qualified traffic to your site/blog, and help convert those prospects into customers.

If you only commit to one blog post every other week, then you’ll still have 26 posts, 26 opportunities at landing new business that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

So what’s keeping you from starting/re-starting your business blog?

Rich Brooks
Small Business Blogging

Photo Credit: Poolie

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Business Philosophy, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Marketing | 10 Comments »

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