The Work Media Internet Marketing Blog

For a blogger, I don't get out much. Most successful bloggers spend all kinds of time reading other blogs, posting, being active in blog communities...and I don't know how they do it. How the heck do you do that and still get any work done? We still don't visit many blogs and get into that community stuff too much, simply because of the time required. But we have started doing something that moves us in that direction that i think may be of value to you.

We've been going to "answer" sites and responding to questions that deal with search engine marketing topics. A couple of good examples of the types of sites I'm talking about are:

http://answers.yahoo.com

and

http://linkedin.com/answers

To answer questions on either site, you have to have an account. Signing up doesn't take long, but you might want to spend some time working on your profile just in case people reading your answers want to find out more about you.

You may or may not receive any boost in your search engine rankings from these sites. Linkedin, for example, uses a redirect for your web site link, so it's not a link straight to your site. And Yahoo! inserts a nofollow attribute in links contained in answers. But with Yahoo!, we have seen many links contained in answers appear in search engine lists of links to a site, so we think you are getting some value there.

Even if you receive no search engine ranking boost, you will expose your expertise to people looking for help in your area, so chances are good that you will receive some traffic. It's just another form of on-line networking. You've got to get your name out there, and answering questions is a good way to do it.

You do need to be careful not to use the answer sites simply for promotional purposes. Your accounts will be banned quick if you do that. If you're going to do it, you need to look for questions for which you can honestly provide some insight, and type out complete, well-written responses.

If you could use some help implementing a search engine optimization or pay per click management campaign for your business, give us a call at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: internet marketing, social bookmarking, social media

For one of our clients we are currently promoting, we are doing a lot of linking - pretty standard stuff for a search engine optimization campaign. As part of this process, we are doing a fair amount of social bookmarking of our client's web pages. We started with del.icio.us, probably the top social bookmarking web site.

We bookmarked every page of the site and tagged each page with a static set of keywords plus keywords specific to that page. Within a couple of days, our main social bookmarks page about those topics was near the top of Google's rankings for some of the keywords - actually above the client we're promoting! So while that's not exactly what we're ultimately trying to achieve, it proves the point that search engines place a lot of stock in information that is categorized via social bookmarking. And in the long run it will help our client rise in the rankings. Although, if someone clicks our link, they will be presented with nothing but links to our client's site - a win, win situation.

Another point is that by bookmarking our client's site, we exposed it to lots of other people who use the same social bookmarking site. If some of them bookmark our client's pages as well, then that strengthens our client's position. And del.icio.us is only one of probably dozens of similar sites, all of which can be used to promote a web site about a particular subject.

So is you have not socially bookmarked your own site's web pages, we strongly recommend it. And have all of your employees sign up for their own accounts and do it as well.

If you need some help promoting your site in the social bookmarking sites (or anywhere else), contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: internet marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, seo, social bookmarking, social media, web marketing, web site marketing

It is possible to weld the core business motive of generating profit with virtues such as charity and environmentalism. Not only is it possible, it is advisable.

If you incorporate an element of charity into a marketing campaign, such as giving a percentage of earnings to a particular charity, it gives you the opportunity to tap into a whole new network. It also gives you a hook for public relations purposes. It goes without saying that the charity should be one that you have researched and want to be associated with.

Having an environmental element to your marketing is another great way to gain the participation of socially aware prospects. People who are devoted to a particular cause are aggressive about dissiminating information in support thereof. So if you associate your marketing campaign with that cause, then you will win the loyalty of and help from the people who believe in the cause.

If you can combine the above elements with a discount or money-saving offer, then you compound the effectiveness of the offer. You will also have all of the makings of a strong press release campaign. Online PR can be used to distribute your message to thousands of web sites. If you push the right buttons, you can generate a ton of traffic from environmentally-conscious individuals who will be receptive to your offer.

If you need help crafting a socially responsible marketing campaign and message for your business, give Work Media a call at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, charity, email marketing, environmentalism, internet marketing, marketing, pr, publicity, social media

Ma.gnolia is a very nicely designed social bookmarking site that is easy to use. It has a Google Page Rank of 7, so it can be a nice boost to your site to acquire links from it.

To sign up:

1. Visit http://ma.gnolia.com.

2. Click the Join button on the top menu. The URL is: http://ma.gnolia.com/join.

3. Type in the required information and click “Join Free”.

4. In a few minutes you will receive an email from Ma.gnolia that you will click to
activate your account.

To bookmark a web page:

1. On the front page, there is a box on the right side of the screen labeled “Add a
bookmark”. Click the arrow beneath the textbox to expand the box to give you
options to add a title, description, and tags (separated by a comma).

2. Type in the information and click Save. Leave the checkbox labeled “Keep
bookmark private” unchecked.

3. As before, make use of the keywords someone would use to search for your web
site in the tags and in the title.

To see the top tags being used on the site, click the Tags link on the top menu. Then click
the tab labeled “Everyone’s Top Tags”.

To add the functionality to your browser to bookmark sites without having to go do the
Ma.gnolia web site, visit: http://ma.gnolia.com/support/bookmarklets.

We suggest that you create an account and bookmark every page on your site that has strong content. Hopefully some other people will see your bookmark, check out your site, and bookmark it themselves. Another strategy is to get people who know you or are associated with your business to create their own accounts and bookmark your site as well.

For help integrating social bookmarking sites into your online marketing strategy, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: content, content creation, internet marketing, ma.gnolia.com, marketing, social bookmarking, social media

Yesterday marked out 80th blog post. We're proud of that because it really took us quite a while to get the hang of it, but we're on a roll now. If you've been reading this blog for a while, then we thank you for sticking with us. If you're new, then we thank you for helping us grow. Now onto something related to Internet marketing...

Today we're going to talk about how to use del.icio.us to promote your site. We're beginning with the assumption that you already have an account and have already installed the tool to bookmark web sites.

When you take the action of bookmarking a web site, you will have the options of typing a title, comments, and tags for the site, separated by a space. The title should incorporate the most popular search phrases people are using to search for your product or service. And it should make the reader really want to click the link. Strong copy writing skills are handy at this step. It is also a good idea to type some comments because others may read your comments before deciding whether or not to visit or bookmark the site.

Then you will type in a list of keywords your customers might use to find your web site. It would probably be a good idea to do some keyword research to find the search phrases people are using to find web sites like yours. Keyword research is a detailed topic unto itself, so we will not discuss general purpose keyword research in this document. But one good way to find keywords searchers are using is to do a search related to your business in the del.icio.us search box, then select one of the top results to inspect it to see what tags people have applied to that web site.

For example, if you search for “log cabins” in del.icio.us, the top result (at the time of this writing) has a header that starts “Log homes & log cabins from scratch –“, which is a link to a builder of log homes. Highlighted in pink next to the listing are the words “saved by 30 people”. Clicking that pink link will show you the comments people have made about the site, as well as the most common tags used for the site (on the right-side of the screen). Clicking “list” in the common tags box shows the exact number of times that each tag was used. In our example, the tag “building” was used 8 times, and the tag “loghomes” was used 5 times. The “cloud” view does the same thing, but visually rather than with numbers (heavier used tags are bigger). The term for displaying tags in this manner is a “tag cloud”. You will also notice that above the search results is a section called “Related tags” which will show you more tags related to your search.

Using the above technique will give you a good idea of the tags other people are using to bookmark web sites in your industry, which is a good way of building a list of tags for your site. We recommend bookmarking one page from your site every day, with a set of tags that apply specifically to that page. If you can get some of your co-workers, friends, employees, etc., to also do this on a regular basis, you expose your site to many more people who, hopefully, will like your site good enough to bookmark it themselves.

For help using social bookmarking sites to promote your web site, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: del.icio.us, internet marketing, marketing, social bookmarking, social media, web marketing, web site marketing

According to Online Media Daily, Yahoo! and Create With Context surveyed 2,261 customers who had recently engaged in an online transation such as consumer electronics, automobiles, hotels or loans. Their conclusion was that 40% of those surveyed could be classified as "brand advocates" - meaning they discussed and endorsed their preferred brands with others. For instance, they might discuss their favorite brands on message boards or on a mySpace page.

40%.

This definitely underscores the importance in building a strong "brand" for your company. Working like hell to sell your product or service is a bit of a waste if you don't have a "brand" by which your market can identify you.

So think long and hard about the colors on your web site, your logo, the "look" of your web site. And think long and hard about the story of your business. And what it is that differentiates you from others. If there isn't anything, create something. Because it is likely that 40% of the people you sale to online will go on to endorse your brand and spread your brand to others. If they feel you're worth it.

And if you have a brand.

Contact Work Media at info@workmedia.net or 888-299-4837 for help building your Company's brand and infusing it into your Internet marketing campaign.

Labels: brand, branding, internet marketing, marketing, online branding, social media, surveys, Yahoo