Yellow Page Ads: How to Maximize Your Yellow Page ROI

Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

Yellow Page Ads: How to Maximize Your Yellow Page ROI

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

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

Tags: blogging, Copywriting, designing yellow page ads, Email Marketing, SEO, Social Media, yellow page ad, yellow pages
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

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

Tags: blogging, electromagnet, electromagnetic, SEM, SEO
Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Copywriting, Web Design & Development, Web Marketing | 4 Comments »

How to Make Time to Blog: 5 Ways to Ensure You Write Blogposts

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

This has been a banner year. Flyte’s been busier than ever, and it’s been great. But that comes at a price…I haven’t had as much time to blog as I’d like.

According to Rich, it’s BS when you say you don’t have time to blog. He takes a business owner’s standpoint on the subject: you’re investing in your business every time you write a new post. Sounds a little more worthwhile after hearing that, huh?

But from a logistical standpoint, though, sometimes you just don’t have the time. Never fear, there are ways around that.

1. Take advantage of a creative moment

I know and love these moments – those moments that tend to happen at the most inopportune times (you know…in the middle of the night, in the middle of a conference call, in the middle of breakfast…).

Here’s the thing: take advantage of those moments by at least getting your ideas down on paper, or recording on your phone. (If you have the time, write a quick draft.) You’ll be happy you did.

2. Take the easy way out

Sometimes, it’s OK to write an easy blogpost to get something out there. As long as you don’t lean on these type of posts as a crutch every time you write, you’re in the clear. Here are some ideas:

Find a Wall Street Journal article, copy and paste part of it, then write your .02.
Update an old blogpost you did.
Do a top 10 link list of interesting posts in your niche.
Write a Dear Abby letter to yourself and answer it.
Create a list of your favorite Tweeps in your niche or region.
Take a photo or video you found online, embed it, and write a few sentences about it. (Better yet, take your own photo or video.)

3. Two (or three or four…) heads are better than one

Lean on your coworkers, staff, family, and friends for post ideas. Ask staff and coworkers what kinds of questions they’ve been getting from customers lately. Ask friends and family how your business relates to them and what they’d like to learn about it.

4. Relate it…somehow, anyhow

For many, business isn’t personal. Though to others, it is. I’m the latter. So take an interesting story that happened to you over the weekend and use it for an analogy – or even just a fun post.

5. Allow guest blogging

What better way to save time blogging than to have someone else write for you? Accept guest blogposts from the community, or even better: from your coworkers and staff.

When it comes right down to it, it’s about doing what works for you. What ways do you manage your time to write blogposts?

Nicki Hicks
Time Manager

Tags: blogging, time management
Posted in Blogging | No 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

Tags: Barry Chandler, Bill McRea, blogging, Blogging Masters Telesummit, Chris Cree, Denise Wakeman, Elisa Camahort Page, Erik Deckers, Gideon Shalwick, Jack Humphrey, Kary Rogney, Regina Smola, Vinil Ramdev
Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Web Marketing | 2 Comments »

How Much Time Should You Dedicate to Blogging?

Friday, September 10th, 2010

One 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

Tags: Blog, blogging, business blogging, entrepreneur
Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Business Philosophy, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Marketing | 10 Comments »

The 7 Most Common Reasons Guest Blogposts Get Rejected at Copyblogger (with Sonia Simone and Jon Morrow)

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

The following is a recap of a Remarkable Marketing Blueprint with Sonia Simone and Jon Morrow – both editors at Copyblogger.

1. They Don’t Know Who You Are

Go ahead and submit a guest post via traditional means, but that still means the blogger won’t know who you are. If you’re an unknown, then the big blogs get so many posts from people they know, then why would they post yours?

So how can you fight against it?

Start commenting on the blog. If the blogger sees that you are participating in the comments, that will work toward the chances of your guest blogposts being published.
Get on Gravatar.com and get your face connected to your comments. It helps connect your name with your face.
Don’t use “doppy names”. You’ll stand out…but in the wrong way.
It’s all about building a relationship with the blogger:
- Get familiar with the blog
- Make yourself stand out
- Keep it short and sweet when you reach out to a blogger
- Don’t treat the blogger like a god. Here are some tips on how to get a big shot answer your email.

2. You didn’t meet the standards of the blog

Consider the audience.

Submit your best work to the biggest audience.

Put time into your guest post. (Jonathan put together some point that relate to that here.) There’s a direct correlation between time spent on the post and the amount the post is shared.

Feel free to repurpose your content that you submit to guest post, but don’t do it as a blogpost. Try a PDF or a video – repurpose it as something else entirely.

Don’t submit a post you’ve already run on your own blog.

3. You didn’t match the editorial style of blog

For example, Copyblogger’s first paragraph – even the first few paragraphs – is usually only one sentence long. They use a lot of sub-headers and juicy sub-headers throughout the post. Take time to match the writing style of the blog.

Look through the popular posts and mimic the structure of one of those posts. Don’t reinvent the wheel here. Stealing framework is ethical as far as Copyblogger is concerned.

Adapt your own personal style for the blog you’re writing for.

4. Your topic isn’t a fit

If you want to write a post that is PG-13, you wouldn’t want to post it on the PG-rated Copyblogger. If you’re hell-bent on keeping curses in your post, then try to find another blog that would post a PG-13 post.

5. You weren’t memorable

Help readers make a connection with you with a personal story. Mention your kids, or your dog, or how much you hate broccoli – whatever it is! Those personal details will stick with people and bond you with them.

6. You keep making the same mistakes

Take the original post and compare it to the published version. You’ll learn more from those edits than you ever could from a writing book.

Editors feel good when you correct posts you write again for the blog. If you don’t fix mistakes you keep making, editors might see it as being lazy, that you don’t get it, and that it’s going to take a ton of time to edit/keep up with (and the writer becomes a chore).

That said, you’re not expected to be perfect the first time around. They might even make you rewrite the post. That’s not a big deal. You’re never going to be perfect, either.

Guest posts are a collaboration – don’t feel insulted if and when your posts are edited. For one guest post Jon did, he was told up front he’d be creating 3 drafts. Copyblogger posts go through three rounds of edits with multiple editors, including Brian Clark. (Due to this, Copyblogger is willing to take a post with strong ideals and poor writing and do the work to improve it for publishing.) These are all things you need to be aware of for whichever blog you’re looking to do guest posts for.

You can create a relationship with other guest bloggers by reaching out and asking “How was your experience doing the post for Copyblogger?”

7. You think you’re entitled

Sonia talks about an example with a woman who was persistent about a post she submitted which simply wasn’t suitable for the blog’s audience. Sonia nicely told her this, but the woman pushed. Instead of saying “OK, I’ll edit it and make it so it does suit your audience,” the woman presumed her post she be published. So instead of following up and standing out, she’s actually called attention to herself as a trouble maker.

It’s important to remember humility when you post on another person’s blog – you’re a guest blogger, after all. Act like one.

Sonia Simone – Remarkable Marketing Blueprint

Jon Morrow – Associate Editor of Copyblogger

Tags: blogging, Guest Blogging
Posted in Expert Advice | No Comments »

6 Ways to Get Inspired to Write Blogposts: Are your posts getting stale?

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

A while back, I wrote about what to do when you can’t think of anything to blog about. This post goes a step further. Do you feel like you’ve been keeping up with your blog pretty well, but your posts are always a similar flavor? Let’s spice it up a little…

1. What’s your competition up to?

Use Google’s blog search to search for blogposts in your industry. You’ll have to sort the junk, but I bet you’ll quickly feel inspired with some new and different posts.

2. Write more about what people are already finding

Check out your Google Analytics Traffic Sources section, then in your keywords. Scroll to the bottom of the list – deep down in the long tail. Only a few people found you with these keywords, but perhaps there’s opportunity to expand on some posts you’ve already written by incorporating some of that long tail language.

3. What’s hot in your industry right now?

Have a favorite blog(s)? Follow what’s happening in your industry right now and blog about it. Sure, you won’t be the news source where people find out what happened first; but you’ll certainly be able to put your own, unique spin on it. Or, if you don’t have many other favorite blogs, you could always use one of these cool tools.

4. IRL (In Real Life)

Does something ever happen in your day-to-day life that makes you think “Man, I could relate this to something in my blog!” Grab a piece of scrap paper, a voice recorder, or your phone and jot your idea down! You’d be surprised how you can relate something completely unrelated to your industry.

5. Use what you already know

Tips and tricks you use every day may be common place to you, but not your audience. Write a quick tutorial blogpost or, better yet, create a video how-to!

6. Incorporate FAQs

Are your customers constantly asking you the same questions? Chances are, it’s probably more than just your customer base asking those questions. Make sure you write those questions down when you’re on the phone with a client.

What are your tricks for spicing up your blogposts?

Photo credit: recycle this

Nicki Hicks
Don’t get stale

Tags: blogging
Posted in Blogging | No Comments »

Why A Blog Won’t Help Your Business

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

This blog post originally appeared at FastCompany.com where Rich Brooks is an Expert Blogger.

A blog won’t help your business. Just like that StairMaster gathering dust in your basement won’t make you thin. Or a hammer won’t help you build those shelves if you don’t pick it up.

A blog is just a tool, and it can’t help you build your business. Seems obvious, right? And yet we see so many businesses that set up a blog but don’t commit the resources to make it work for them.

Blogging–actually using your blog–can help your business, and blogging effectively will absolutely help your business by:

increasing your online visibility,
improving your search engine ranking,
establishing your expertise and
warming online lead generation.

To start blogging, you need to commit resources. I would recommend 2 – 3 posts per week for 6 months. You can keep posts short–we’re addicted to “short form content.” A few hundred words is great. As far as blogging goes, you can blog yourself, delegate it to someone else in the office, hire a copywriter, or some combination of the three.

When you start blogging it can be difficult, but you need to keep with it, and strengthen those “blogging muscles.” After a while, knocking out another keyword-rich blog post will be second nature, something you can do while watching the ball game, or after the kids are asleep, or taken care of during the work day.

To start blogging effectively, you need to blog to answer the questions your customers have, and address the pain points of your prospects. Ideas for blog posts can include:

FAQs, often in the form of Dear Abby questions. Remember, if one prospect or client had that question, probably hundreds or thousands of other people had the same question and asked it of Google. Your blog posts that address these questions can rank well for these specific questions.
Top 10 lists. People love numbered lists; it speaks to our overly complicated lives and our need for you to cut to the chase. I may not have time to understand the nuances of saving for retirement, but if you have the top 10 (or 101) tips for saving for retirement, well, I’ve got time for that.
News items. If a news item affects your target audience, grab a paragraph or two of the article, put it in your blog (with attribution and a link) alone with your own .02. In ten minutes you’ve got your blog done for the day.
Creative process. If you have a creative product, whether it’s furniture, jewelry or flower arrangement, share the creative process with your audience. People will pay a premium if they can tell a story about your product, whether they’re giving a gift to their spouse or showing off their new dining room set.

There are of course dozens of other blog post types, and if you have one that works for you, please share it here.

Now dust off that blog and start working those blogging muscles!

Rich Brooks
Blogger, Entrepreneur, International Spy

Photo credit: Justin Baeder.

Tags: Blog, blog marketing, blogging
Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Web Marketing | 11 Comments »