Training Workshop: Press Release Writing: WCCC-East Campus, Thursday, 4/14/11 @ 4:00 PM

Money Making Opportunity: Press Release Writing Training for Beginners on Thursday (4/14/11)

Want to Make Money or Start a Business as a Writer? A client is ready for your good work!

Want to Learn How to Market Your Own Business? Does your business have TOO many customers?

Come to the event at WCCC-East Campus on Thursday.

Event: Press Release Writing Training Workshop for Beginners
Speaker: Chris Wechner
Date: Thursday, April 14, 2011
Time: 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Cost: FREE
Location: Wayne County Community College-East Campus, Cooper Room
Address: 5901 Conner Street, Detroit, MI 48213
Click HERE for Directions.

Topics to be Covered:
Making Money as a Writer
How to Market Yourself
Keyword Basics
Backlinks
Anchor Text
Articles vs. Press Releases
Parts of a Press Release
Getting Ideas for Writing Press Releases
Press Release Example
Demonstration

Come get free training. It might be too costly to miss.

Return to Genesee Internet Club Home

Article: But it's got to be perfect!

I saw an article, actually a blog post, But it's got to be perfect!, by Jonathon Leger, and I think it makes a really good point.

In Internet Marketing, many people (often this includes me) feel that they have to do everything perfectly.  After all, it's people who see their work.  If it isn't good, that will reflect poorly and hurt sales.

Yes, it's true that you don't want to put out crummy work.  However, nobody knows our flaws as well as we do.  In fact, most people aren't interested enough in us to notice our flaws.  They're mostly concerned with what will benefit them.

As long as you keep this in mind--THE BENEFITS--most readers will not care about a misspelled word or three.

If you saw an ad for something that you've wanted to buy for a long time at HALF PRICE, would YOU care about typos or poor sentence structure?

If you're like most people, you're reading that ad to find the store location, phone number, or website address so that you can BENEFIT from this great deal.

Market with that in mind.  Make sure the benefits reach as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

After all, isn't that why you're marketing in the first place?

Don't let needless perfectionism get in the way.

Return to Genesee Internet Club Home Page

Conversions: Remember WHY You're Marketing

If you follow all of the steps that people tell you to get traffic, you will not be guaranteed, but you will have a pretty good chance of attracting attention, meaning that your marketing is working.  People are looking.

Is everything good, now?

Not necessarily!

What good is it to make people listen to you IF you do not persuade them to take the action that you want.  How well is your site (or ad) converting to sales, calls, or whatever it is that you want them to do for or with you?

Don't forget that once you have people's attention, make sure you're telling them a message either they WANT to hear or find interesting.

If you're not getting calls from your website, maybe you need to market more.  However, maybe your marketing is fine.

Your sales copy might stink!  If your sales copy stinks, you won't get calls, no matter how well you market.

A few tips to writing good sales copy on your page...

3 Internet Marketing Jobs That Did NOT Exist 10 Years Ago

I saw an article (10 Jobs That Didn't Exist 10 Years Ago) on Yahoo, and I was curious. So I looked at it.

A few of them cite examples of skills you can learn from attending different Internet Marketing Groups.

Which new jobs are they? In the words of the article, here they are:

Quick Trick: Quickly Changing Your Screen Size

Have you ever had trouble reading something that you see on the Internet, because it is too small or even too big (so that you see only part of the screen)?

Here is a quick tip that’s helped me a lot over the years…

1. Find the scroll wheel on your mouse. (Usually this let’s you scroll up and down the screen.)
2. Hold down the Control (Ctrl) Key
3. Move the mouse wheel up and down and see what happens.

Isn’t that easy? More importantly, it’s helpful, too.

Beware: Most computers will remember the last “size” you had the computer screen, unless you clear your cookies. Once you do that, you will need to “reset” the size for that particular web page.

Offsite SEO: Directory Submission

Something that might be able to help your offsite SEO efforts is Directory Submission.

There are a few pay-to-play website directories that carry clout with Google.

While I do not think taking time to submit your site to directories is horrible, my experience shows me that this is not a great use of your time (if you do this yourself) or money (if you pay someone else to do this), especially for the free ones.

There are MANY free directories that will let you leave YOUR link on their Directory Website for free (or a small fee).


What is the harm?  Free is glee, right?

Video: 2 Videos: Branding: SEO Company and Skateboarding Pro

When you're marketing, it's important to get people to buy from you today.  Without sales today, you better have money to keep you living until you finally get sales.

If you don't have enough money to hold you until  you get those sales tomorrow, then you're in big trouble.  You're probably not going to be in business very long, or you'll have a lot of debt.

However, it's always a good idea to plan for tomorrow, because if you're always reacting to things today, you're always going to have to work hard just to keep surviving.

Working for tomorrow's sales is called branding.

Branding is the overall perception that your target audience gets when they think of your company.  (Note: I stole this definition from Wendy Maynard's video, but it's a really good definition.)

Catch a key word in there...PERCEPTION.

Tool: Google Keyword Tool (A Beginner's Guide)

In an earlier post, Keywords: The Amazing Category, I mentioned how important keywords are.

They are important to the Internet Searcher, because they keep the Internet from being littered with too much junk. We all use the Internet, because it usually is such a useful tool to help us find whatever we need. If we kept getting answers to every question, EXCEPT the one we’re asking, we’d stop using the Internet. It would no longer by useful to us or anyone else.

They are important to the Internet Marketer, because it helps us avoid doing a lot of work without there being any chance of giving us the results that we want. Even if we are not lazy, none of us want our work to be wasted.

Understanding keywords help us work more intelligently.

Quick Tips: Google Places (Google Map)

Google Places/Google Map are an entirely different animal, it seems.

While nobody ever REALLY knows what Google values, many of us have pretty good ideas.  Many of these are derived from a common sense perspective.  Essentially, we figure Google to like what us, as readers like.

We like to read at pages that answer the questions we wanted to find.  It helps if a lot of other people have had good experiences with this before we ever got there.  We like it to be easy to read the material, and we want to be able to find everything we want without having to strain ourselves.

Google (and the other search engines) cover this pretty well.

However, the rules seem to change for Google Places listings (which also go to Google Maps, too).

Comment: Google Places Listing (Google Map)

A relatively new concept in Internet Marketing is getting an account within Google Places and placing your business on the Google Place listing or even sometimes on the Google Map listing.

Actually, it's a great idea.  There are just some things to consider.

I think that every business should do it.  It's free, and often you will notice that Google Places and Google Map listings are ahead of the other organic (free) results.  This is not always true, though.

Here are a couple of examples of searches within Flint:

Link: "What is Affiliate Marketing?"

Looking for a topic to discuss, I ran across a pretty good one for beginners.

In an earlier post, I tried to answer this question by comparing it to other computer and/or marketing terms that are not the same but are often confused with Internet Marketing.

Affiliate Marketing is something that can be done offline or online, but today it is most often done online.

Here is a link to someone else's explanation of Affiliate Marketing:
http://www.rickhorning.com/affiliate-marketing/what-is-affiliate-marketing-3.html

Let me know if you want me to put together my own explanation for this.

Offsite SEO: Forum Commenting

Here is another offsite search engine optimization (SEO) to do.

Forum Commenting

It is similar to Blog Commenting, another effective and easy to implement.

There are fewer forums, but sometimes, you can get a forum on a well-established website.  What this means to you is that you MIGHT be able to make a backlink to your site from a somewhat high-ranking keyword related website.

There is one difference between Blogs and Forums.

Advice: Form a Study Group

This is not new advice, and it is not specific only to trying to learn Internet Marketing.

The wisdom is new for enough people that it is worth a mention.  I see a lot of people who need this reminder.  Likely, it will not be the last time you read or hear me say this.

Forming study groups are a great way to learn a lot in a short time.

What are the benefits to forming study groups?

Offsite SEO: Blog Commenting

There are two names to the Offsite SEO game:

1. Generate Traffic
2. Create Backlinks

Now, "Generate Traffic" could be an immediate response, or it could be a slow cooking approach with a lot of branding.

The main thing, though, is creating backlinks.

We can use OTHER people's blogs to create backlinks or generate traffic to our site.  We can simply leave comments on their blogs.

Careful!  There is a right way and a wrong way to do this!

Should we just post comments, anywhere?

Upcoming Events: Computer Classes: Flint Public Library

For those who are interested, there are FREE computer classes available through the Flint Public Library.

**Registration IS Required.  Courses fill quickly!**
Call 810.249-2569 to register.
Call for additional dates and times.

Main Library
Address: 1026 E. Kearsley Street, Flint, MI 48503
Phone:  (810) 249-2569

COMPUTERS FOR BEGINNERS
Wednesdays, January 5 and 12, 1-3 p.m.
Tuesdays, January 18 and 25, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Thursdays, January 27 and February 3, 1-3 p.m.
Thursdays, February 10 and17, 3, 1-3 p.m.
Tuesdays, February 15 and 22, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Great Blog: Seth Godin

Here is a shoutout to a great blog:  Seth's Blog.

The link is at http://sethgodin.typepad.com.

Seth Godin is the creater of Squidoo, which I will explain in a future blog posting, but it is a free site that allows you to create things for free.  It even gives you a chance to make money for yourself or a charity.  Pretty cool!

He also is the author of the Purple Cow, which not only is a cool name of a book, but it defines the ideal strategy for Internet Marketing strategies for organic searches.

What makes this blog so cool?

Seth is just a heady guy, and while no blog is ever perfect, he provides a good guideline on how to blog really should be.  Plus, he just is full of thought provoking ideas.

Often, it's a quick read, too, but you'll get so much from it.

Habit Tip: A Little Bit--EVERY DAY

Anyone who does Internet Marketing knows that it can be tedious.

Generally, it is fun to figure out a new approach, but it's not nearly as fun to ACT on that approach.

Solution?

Just commit--in advance--to doing a little bit every day, even if it is not much.

A little every day will add to a lot more than a lot of your competitors over time.

Don't get discouraged. Just try to find an encouraging formula.

Real Simple Syndication (RSS) Explained

In my previous post, Blogging Writing Tips, I mentioned that you should make it easy to give RSS feed to anyone coming to your blog to post onto their site.

A lot of people TALK about RSS, but not many of them ever explain it.  I suspect it is because nobody ever really explained it to them.

First, let's explain what the word syndication means.  The word syndicate has several meanings, but from our perspective, it simply means that...

Blog Writing Tips

Yesterday, I posted on the benefits of writing blogs for onsite SEO.

Today, I will give a few tips how to write a good (and effective) blog.

Obviously, your approach will depend upon what you want your blog to accomplish for you.

You might be writing a blog to...

Onsite SEO: Write a Blog

As we try to find new ways to make our website more marketable, we can turn to one of the older methods...Writing a blog.

Writing a blog is good for onsite Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Why is it good to write blogs?

Happy New Year, Genesee County!

Happy New Year, Genesee County!

As I reflect on this past year, I realize that I could have done so much more.

Then again, I met a lot of truly tremendous people.  I know that many things that I learned this year will help me perform even better in 2011.

Hopefully, I can find ways to transfer some of that knowledge to people in Flint and Genesee County.

I look forward to a progressive new year, and I look forward to meeting some of you.