Lois Kelly is the author of Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. This is her explanation of the top nine types of stories that people like to talk about. If you’re pitching your company to investors, customers, partners, journalists, vendors, or employees and you don’t use at least one of these story lines, you probably have a problem. And most likely you’re too close to what you’re doing, so you think that you’re uniquely “patent-pending, curve-jumping, and revolutionary.” :-)
Aspirations and beliefs. More than any other topic, people like to hear about aspirations and beliefs. (This may be why religion is the most popular word-of-mouth topic, ever.) Sun Microsystems’ Scott McNealy’s point of view about ending the digital divide is aspirational as is Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s views about how companies can grow by reducing pollution and creating more sustainable business strategies. Aspirations are helpful because they help us connect emotionally to the speaker, the company, and the issues. They help us see into a person or company’s soul.
David vs. Goliath. In the story of David and Goliath, the young Hebrew David took on the Philistine giant Goliath and beat him. It is the way Southwest Airlines conquered the big carriers, the way the once unknown Japanese car manufacturers took on Detroit, and the way social media is taking on the media giants. Sharing stories about how a small organization is taking on a big company is great business sport. Rooting for the underdog grabs our emotions, creates meaning, and invokes passion. We like to listen to the little guy talk about how he’s going to win and why the world—or the industry—will be a better place for it.
Avalanche about to roll. The mountain is rumbling, the sun is getting stronger, but the rocks and snow are yet to fall. You want to tune in and listen to the “avalanche about to roll” topic because you know that there’s a chance that you will be killed if caught unaware. This theme taps into our desire to get the inside story before it’s widely known. It’s not only interesting to hear someone speak about these ideas, they have the ingredients for optimal viral and pass-along effect.
Contrarian/counterintuitive/challenging assumptions. These three themes are like first cousins, similar in many ways but slightly different. Contrarian perspectives defy conventional wisdom; they are positions that often are not in line with—or may even be directly opposite to—the wisdom of the crowd. The boldness of contrarian views grabs attention; the more original and less arrogant they are, the more useful they will be in provoking meaningful conversations.
Counterintuitive ideas fight with what our intuition (as opposed to a majority of the public) says is true. When you introduce counterintuitive ideas, it takes people a minute to reconcile the objective truth with their gut assumption about the topic. Framing views counter to how we intuitively think about topics—going against natural “gut instincts”—pauses and then resets how we think and talk about concepts.
Challenging widely-held assumptions means that when everyone else says the reason for an event is X, you show that it’s actually Y. Challenging assumptions is good for debate and discussion, and especially important in protecting corporate reputation.
Anxieties. Anxiety is a cousin of the avalanche about to roll, but it is more about uncertainty than an emerging, disruptive trend. Examples of anxiety themes abound: (1) Financial services companies urging baby boomers to hurry up and invest more for retirement: “You’re 55. Will you have your needed $3.2 million to retire comfortably?” (2) Tutoring companies planting seeds of doubt about whether our kids will score well enough on the SATs to get into a good college. Although anxiety themes grab attention, go easy. People are becoming skeptical, and rightly so. Too many politicians, companies have bombarded us with FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) with no facts to back up their point.
Personalities and personal stories. There’s nothing more interesting than a personal story with some life lessons to help us understand what makes executives tick and what they value the most. The points of these personal stories are remembered, retold, and instilled into organizational culture. Robert Goizueta, the respected CEO of Coca-Cola, said he hated giving speeches but he was always telling stories—often personal ones about how he and his family had to flee Cuba when Castro took control and had nothing more than his education.
Similarly, when Steve Jobs gave the commencement address to Stanford University in June 2005, he shared his personal story and life lessons. That commencement address, “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish,” was talked about on thousands of blog and was published verbatim in Fortune magazine. It helped us see Jobs in a new light.
How-to stories and advice. Theoretical and thought-provoking ideas are nice, but people love pragmatic how-to advice: how to solve problems, find next practices, and overcome common obstacles. To be interesting, how-to themes need to be fresh and original, providing a new twist to what people already know or tackle thorny issues like how to get IT and marketing organizations to work together despite deep culture clashes between the two.
Glitz and glam. Robert Palmer sang about being addicted to love. Our society is more addicted to glamour and celebrity. Finding a way to logically link to something glitzy and glamorous is a surefire conversation starter. For example, tagging on to the widespread interest in the Academy Awards, Randall Rothenberg, former director of intellectual property at consultancy Booz Allen-Hamilton, last year talked about the similarity and challenges between creating new “star” product brands and movie stars.
Seasonal/event-related. Last, and least interesting but seems to resonate, is tying your topic into seasonal or major events. Talking about industry predictions around the New Year, advertising during SuperBowl season, executive compensation reform when an executive of a well known company “resigns” with an especially bloated compensation package are examples of this type of story.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here’s a good exercise for your team: Have it read this posting and then answer the question: What story line does our marketing currently use? Then, if you’re brave enough, ask the question: What story line should our marketing use?
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
blogging motivation factors
The idea I want to ask you about is what motivates you to write about a certain topic:
* Audience needs - Many writers will tell you they write for a particular audience but how far up in the priorities and idea generation process does the audience come? For an Authority Blog I think this is a key success factor but I don’t think every writer thinks about what an audience needs first. There are a few blogs and newsletters I think fit, or appear to, I am thinking Steve Pavlina, Adam Kayce and Sean D’Souza. I aim for this one but at least half the time I fit into the following category …
* Existing Expertise - “Write what you know” is common advice to writers. I have a theory that many people select from their personal collection of possible topics those that will resonate with their audience. Their own experience comes first then their readers are brought in as a filter. Am I right? I am thinking most blogs that I follow fit this mold, particularly “been there, done that” blogs such as Shoemoney, Strobist.
* News Reporting - Do you write whatever is newsworthy today? Techcrunch and Gizmodo fit into this category. If you follow the news then there will be little control over topics, though you might be able to reduce down possible stories to just the ones that are most interesting. For example on my photography blog I only report new cameras that I know my audience will want to know about.
* Follow Mood - Probably more for personal columns and blogs, it is rare outside of those venues you have the freedom to just write whatever comes to you on any topic at all. My personal blog fits this, I have no topic selection at all other than to record the random thoughts that come to me. I wonder how many of some of my favorite reads fit this too to an extent, like Darren Barefoot and Aaron Wall …
* Entertaining - Possibly you have only entertaining your audience as your criteria. Any topic goes providing it is fun, interesting or humorous. Scott Adams blog fits this criteria, as do online comics like Penny Arcade and What the Duck. They might follow themes (”philosotainment”, Games and Photography respectively) but the primary selection process is to entertain.
Do any of these fit you or am I way off track? Please select which most fits from the poll then tell me about it in the comments …
* Audience needs - Many writers will tell you they write for a particular audience but how far up in the priorities and idea generation process does the audience come? For an Authority Blog I think this is a key success factor but I don’t think every writer thinks about what an audience needs first. There are a few blogs and newsletters I think fit, or appear to, I am thinking Steve Pavlina, Adam Kayce and Sean D’Souza. I aim for this one but at least half the time I fit into the following category …
* Existing Expertise - “Write what you know” is common advice to writers. I have a theory that many people select from their personal collection of possible topics those that will resonate with their audience. Their own experience comes first then their readers are brought in as a filter. Am I right? I am thinking most blogs that I follow fit this mold, particularly “been there, done that” blogs such as Shoemoney, Strobist.
* News Reporting - Do you write whatever is newsworthy today? Techcrunch and Gizmodo fit into this category. If you follow the news then there will be little control over topics, though you might be able to reduce down possible stories to just the ones that are most interesting. For example on my photography blog I only report new cameras that I know my audience will want to know about.
* Follow Mood - Probably more for personal columns and blogs, it is rare outside of those venues you have the freedom to just write whatever comes to you on any topic at all. My personal blog fits this, I have no topic selection at all other than to record the random thoughts that come to me. I wonder how many of some of my favorite reads fit this too to an extent, like Darren Barefoot and Aaron Wall …
* Entertaining - Possibly you have only entertaining your audience as your criteria. Any topic goes providing it is fun, interesting or humorous. Scott Adams blog fits this criteria, as do online comics like Penny Arcade and What the Duck. They might follow themes (”philosotainment”, Games and Photography respectively) but the primary selection process is to entertain.
Do any of these fit you or am I way off track? Please select which most fits from the poll then tell me about it in the comments …
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Google Pagerank
PageRank Explained
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important." Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages' relative importance.
Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines dozens of aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
Integrity
Google's complex automated methods make human tampering with our search results extremely difficult. And though we may run relevant ads above and next to our results, Google does not sell placement within the results themselves (i.e., no one can buy a particular or higher placement). A Google search provides an easy and effective way to find high-quality websites that contain information relevant to your search.
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important." Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages' relative importance.
Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines dozens of aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
Integrity
Google's complex automated methods make human tampering with our search results extremely difficult. And though we may run relevant ads above and next to our results, Google does not sell placement within the results themselves (i.e., no one can buy a particular or higher placement). A Google search provides an easy and effective way to find high-quality websites that contain information relevant to your search.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
PROFESSIONAL BLOGGER JOB DESCRIPTION
SUMMARY:
Develop and maintain corporate blogs. Research and write articles in a conversational style, which engages readers. Interface with key departments (executive, marketing, customer service, IT etc.) to insure blog content captures readers' interest, while promoting company message. Use appropriate tools to provide management with metric reports. Use on-line and off-line social networking techniques for collaboration with people inside and outside the organization. Maintain quality assurance, by open information exchange with customer service and marketing departments. Promote company objectives with each blog article.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Develop and maintain plan for organization's Internet presence, based on management priorities, policy directions, and goals.
2. Perform continuous enhancements and modifications to blogs.
3. Assess new standards, technologies and trends, and formulate plans for future enhancement to blogging strategies.
4. Use latest syndication and blogging tools with HTML, when appropriate.
5. Ensure blog(s) are accessible from a variety of different environments.
6. Produces a consistent visual image on blog(s) including maintenance of templates and image archives.
7. Ensure images are delivered to the viewer at sufficient high speed and quality.
8. Creates image links and ensure links are up to date.
9. Troubleshoot and repairs bugs and problems.
10. Respond promptly to blog comments and email
11. Provide metrics of traffic statistics, reports and blog comment feedback to appropriate areas.
12. Research, write/edit and create layout for new articles and features.
13. Act as liaison between blog readers and corporation
14. Interface collaboratively with web design team to insure cohesiveness between blog(s) and corporate web site.
15. Perform other duties, as assigned.
MINIMUM JOB REQUIREMENTS:
Possess engaging "conversational" writing skills with a professional posture. Must have be published by a recognized organization (on or off line) or have published blogs with confirmed reader visit statistics. High school diploma or GED with related experience in achieving company objectives with blogging expertise. Must be computer and definitely Internet/search engine savvy to perform online research. Completed degrees from accredited institutions may be substituted for experience on a year-for-year basis, provided courses were taken in writing, marketing, business and psychology/sociology.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:
Technical
* Ability to evaluate new and evolving blog technologies.
* Solid understanding of all sections related to the anatomy of a blog
* Ability to utilize reporting tools for analysis of traffic, referral links and reader demographics
* Ability to use syndication and pinging tools
* Knowledge and understanding of current editing, authoring tools, and related blog technologies.
* Ability to utilize computerized word processing, blogging and internet software.
* Solid foundation in search engine optimization (SEO) and implementing RSS technology
* Knowledge and understanding of internet operations and functionality
* Ability to evaluate new and evolving blogging technologies.
* Skill in the use of computerized blog layout and design software.
* Topical knowledge of the Internet, ftp, telnet and the ability to develop website documents.
* Topical knowledge of html, web development and maintenance.
Writing
* Proofreading and editing skills.
* Ability to create, compose, and edit written materials.
* Ability to write simply with a conversational style
* Writing should be informative, but not verbose
Project Management
* Ability to effectively manage time and schedules.
* Ability to work independently and as a member of a team.
* Strategic planning skills.
Business Savvy
* Ability to include corporate objectives and mission throughout blog presentation
* Solicit feedback from internal departments and
* Understand mission of key departments
* Ability to make presentations on blog feedback, metrics and comments at business intelligence meetings
* Assist management in Identifying opportunities, based on new developments in the blogsphere
* Maintain high ethics with blog presentation, content and daily work tasks
Social Networking
* Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community.
* Present professional, but friendly posture with blogsphere colleagues and throughout the Internet
* Provide management and key departments with intelligence from blog feedback, metrics and external discussions related to blog content
* Collaborate with internal departments to enhance blog features and presence
* Act as ambassador and liaison for company with the Internet community
* Develop collaborative partnerships on-line and off-line.
Develop and maintain corporate blogs. Research and write articles in a conversational style, which engages readers. Interface with key departments (executive, marketing, customer service, IT etc.) to insure blog content captures readers' interest, while promoting company message. Use appropriate tools to provide management with metric reports. Use on-line and off-line social networking techniques for collaboration with people inside and outside the organization. Maintain quality assurance, by open information exchange with customer service and marketing departments. Promote company objectives with each blog article.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Develop and maintain plan for organization's Internet presence, based on management priorities, policy directions, and goals.
2. Perform continuous enhancements and modifications to blogs.
3. Assess new standards, technologies and trends, and formulate plans for future enhancement to blogging strategies.
4. Use latest syndication and blogging tools with HTML, when appropriate.
5. Ensure blog(s) are accessible from a variety of different environments.
6. Produces a consistent visual image on blog(s) including maintenance of templates and image archives.
7. Ensure images are delivered to the viewer at sufficient high speed and quality.
8. Creates image links and ensure links are up to date.
9. Troubleshoot and repairs bugs and problems.
10. Respond promptly to blog comments and email
11. Provide metrics of traffic statistics, reports and blog comment feedback to appropriate areas.
12. Research, write/edit and create layout for new articles and features.
13. Act as liaison between blog readers and corporation
14. Interface collaboratively with web design team to insure cohesiveness between blog(s) and corporate web site.
15. Perform other duties, as assigned.
MINIMUM JOB REQUIREMENTS:
Possess engaging "conversational" writing skills with a professional posture. Must have be published by a recognized organization (on or off line) or have published blogs with confirmed reader visit statistics. High school diploma or GED with related experience in achieving company objectives with blogging expertise. Must be computer and definitely Internet/search engine savvy to perform online research. Completed degrees from accredited institutions may be substituted for experience on a year-for-year basis, provided courses were taken in writing, marketing, business and psychology/sociology.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:
Technical
* Ability to evaluate new and evolving blog technologies.
* Solid understanding of all sections related to the anatomy of a blog
* Ability to utilize reporting tools for analysis of traffic, referral links and reader demographics
* Ability to use syndication and pinging tools
* Knowledge and understanding of current editing, authoring tools, and related blog technologies.
* Ability to utilize computerized word processing, blogging and internet software.
* Solid foundation in search engine optimization (SEO) and implementing RSS technology
* Knowledge and understanding of internet operations and functionality
* Ability to evaluate new and evolving blogging technologies.
* Skill in the use of computerized blog layout and design software.
* Topical knowledge of the Internet, ftp, telnet and the ability to develop website documents.
* Topical knowledge of html, web development and maintenance.
Writing
* Proofreading and editing skills.
* Ability to create, compose, and edit written materials.
* Ability to write simply with a conversational style
* Writing should be informative, but not verbose
Project Management
* Ability to effectively manage time and schedules.
* Ability to work independently and as a member of a team.
* Strategic planning skills.
Business Savvy
* Ability to include corporate objectives and mission throughout blog presentation
* Solicit feedback from internal departments and
* Understand mission of key departments
* Ability to make presentations on blog feedback, metrics and comments at business intelligence meetings
* Assist management in Identifying opportunities, based on new developments in the blogsphere
* Maintain high ethics with blog presentation, content and daily work tasks
Social Networking
* Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community.
* Present professional, but friendly posture with blogsphere colleagues and throughout the Internet
* Provide management and key departments with intelligence from blog feedback, metrics and external discussions related to blog content
* Collaborate with internal departments to enhance blog features and presence
* Act as ambassador and liaison for company with the Internet community
* Develop collaborative partnerships on-line and off-line.
29 Traffic Generation Tips
1. Eric Atkins
Create a new design for your website. Not only will it be more attractive to your regular readers, but you can submit it to some CSS gallery showcase sites that feature great designs. This will give you exposure on those sites while generating a lot of traffic and backlinks from those types of sites.
2. Dennis Coughlin
Find the best blogs on your niche and contact the authors. Introduce yourself and send a link of your blog. This might help them to discover your blog, read it and possibly link to it.
3. Splork
I’ve had good success writing articles and submitting them to EzineArticles. Articles that have been written from well-researched keyword phrases and accepted by EzineArticles tend to rank very high in Google for that search term. Placing anchor text in the footer of those articles so the reader can visit my relevant website has always increased my site traffic.
4. Alan Thomas
Don’t forget your archives. I just posted a roundup of all interviews I did over the past seven months. One of them generated a new link and a big traffic spike from a group of users that look like they will be loyal readers now.
5. Brian Auer
According to my Google Analytics, about 35% of my traffic comes from other people’s blogs and 25% comes from the forums I’m active with, while search engines provide about 15%. I post comments on other blogs that are related to mine, and I post my site link in my signature at the forums.
6. Daniel
A simple tip that will probably boost your page views: install a translator plugin. I decided to use a paid plugin for this, but if I am not wrong there are some free ones as well. The translation is not very good, as you can imagine, but it helps to attract readers that are not fluent in English.
7. Tillerman
Be the first to write a post about the ‘Top Ten Blogs’ in your niche. The post will rank highly in any general search for blogs in your niche and other bloggers in your niche write about the post and link to it.
8. Inspirationbit
Well, obviously everyone knows that social bookmarking sites like Digg, del.icio.us, etc. bring lots of traffic. But I’m now submitting some of my articles to blogg-buzz.com (a digg like site for bloggers), and I always get not a bad traffic from there.
9. Brandon Wood
A simple trick I’ve used to increase traffic to my blog is participate in group writing projects. In fact, that’s what I’m doing right now.
10. Kat
I’ve recently gotten involved with several “MySpace-like” community sites that focus on my target audience. I share my thoughts in their forums, post intros to my real blog on their system blog and I’ve even created a group for my specific niche. It’s been very, very successful for me.
11. Sridhar Katakam
Keep track of blogs and leave comments on them. How do you know which blogs to keep track of in the first place? Add the MyBlogLog widget/code to your blog. When
you notice a MyBlogLog user visiting your blog, visit that person’s in turn.
12. Ian Delaney
Nothing creates long-term traffic more than value. Making a post along the lines of ‘Evaluated resources for XYZ’ is useful. Useful things get linked to and they get onto del.icio.us, which is far better long-term than a digg front page.
13. Guido
Comment on blogs, write useful content and make good friends on forums.
14. Grant Gerver
Try to be polemic. I write obsessively about all-things political from the left-wing perspective in the form of humorous, sarcastic one-liners.
15. Megan Taylor
Participate in conversations on related blogs. Start conversations on your own blog. Don’t just post about a story and leave it at that, engage your audience.
16. Ramen Junkie
Newsgroups. I always see a spike when I post a review to a newsgroup.
17. KWiz
Write something controversial. I don’t think it’s good to write something controversial just for the purpose of getting traffic necessarily (especially if it’s only for that purpose and you’re being disingenuous), but it works.
18. Jester
Leave comments on other blogs. If you’re already reading them, it takes just a couple of seconds to leave a message agreeing or disagreeing with the author, you get to leave a link to your site, and you will almost ALWAYS get traffic from your comments.
19. Engtech
Community. It’s one word but it is the most important one when it comes to blogging. The only “blog metric” that makes sense is the vibrant community of readers it has. Building a community around your blog will bring you increased traffic, but how do you start? The boilerplate response to building traffic is always “SEO, social networking sites, and commenting on blogs” but it can be simplified to “be part of a community”. The easiest way to seed your blog is with an already existing community. But the only way to do that is to be part of the community yourself.
20. Goerge Manty
Post 3-5 times a day. Use ping services like pingomatic or setting up wordpress to ping some of the ping services. Engage your readers. Put up polls, ask them questions, give them quizes, free tools, etc. Make them want to come back and tell their friends about you.
21. Mark Alves
Participate in Yahoo Answers and LinkedIn Answers where you can demonstrate your expertise, get associated with relevant keywords and put your URL out there.
22. Andrew Timberlake
A great tip for generating traffic is off-line by including your url in all your off-line liturature from business cards, letterheads, pamphlets, adverts through in-store signage if applicable. I even have our website on my vehicle.
23. Scott Townsend
Inform search engines and aggregators like Technorati (using the ping functionality) when your blog is updated, this should ensure maximum traffic coming from those sources.
24. Jen Gordon
I came upon some unexpected traffic when my blog popped up on some css design portals like www.cssmania.com and www.webcreme.com. If you can put some time into the concept behind and design for your blog, I’d recommend submitting your site to a design portal not only for
additional traffic but to build an additional community around your site.
25. Chris
Squidoo Lenses are a good way to generate traffic. By using a lense, you can generate your own custom “community” of webpages, including some of the more popular pages in your “neighborhood.” Including your own webpage in such a list is a good way of generating traffic.
26. Kyle
Simplify. Pay attention to complex issues in your field of work. It may be a big long publication that is hard to wade through or a concept that is hard to grasp. Reference it and make a shorter “for dummies” version with your own lessons learned and relevant tips. When doing this, I have been surprised to find that the simplified post will appear before the more complex version in search results. Perhaps this is why it results in increased traffic; people looking for more help or clarification on the subject will land on your blog.
27. Nick
Participating in forums is a great way to get loyal readers. Either link baiting people in your signature or posting great advice and tips will give you high quality traffic, which will result in return visitors.
28. Cory OBrien
Read lots of other blogs. Leave trackbacks. Make sure your blog is optimized for search engines. Leverage social bookmarking sites like digg (both for new ideas and for traffic).
29. Shankar Ganesh
Just browse around MyBlogLog.com and you will surely get visitors to your blog.
I think I should start these Group Projects on my blog as well, what do you think? :-)
Update: There was another tip added to this group project, so now there are actually 30 tips:
30. Rory
Submit articles to blog carnivals. Your article almost always gets posted, and it must generate a handful of visitors, at least.
Create a new design for your website. Not only will it be more attractive to your regular readers, but you can submit it to some CSS gallery showcase sites that feature great designs. This will give you exposure on those sites while generating a lot of traffic and backlinks from those types of sites.
2. Dennis Coughlin
Find the best blogs on your niche and contact the authors. Introduce yourself and send a link of your blog. This might help them to discover your blog, read it and possibly link to it.
3. Splork
I’ve had good success writing articles and submitting them to EzineArticles. Articles that have been written from well-researched keyword phrases and accepted by EzineArticles tend to rank very high in Google for that search term. Placing anchor text in the footer of those articles so the reader can visit my relevant website has always increased my site traffic.
4. Alan Thomas
Don’t forget your archives. I just posted a roundup of all interviews I did over the past seven months. One of them generated a new link and a big traffic spike from a group of users that look like they will be loyal readers now.
5. Brian Auer
According to my Google Analytics, about 35% of my traffic comes from other people’s blogs and 25% comes from the forums I’m active with, while search engines provide about 15%. I post comments on other blogs that are related to mine, and I post my site link in my signature at the forums.
6. Daniel
A simple tip that will probably boost your page views: install a translator plugin. I decided to use a paid plugin for this, but if I am not wrong there are some free ones as well. The translation is not very good, as you can imagine, but it helps to attract readers that are not fluent in English.
7. Tillerman
Be the first to write a post about the ‘Top Ten Blogs’ in your niche. The post will rank highly in any general search for blogs in your niche and other bloggers in your niche write about the post and link to it.
8. Inspirationbit
Well, obviously everyone knows that social bookmarking sites like Digg, del.icio.us, etc. bring lots of traffic. But I’m now submitting some of my articles to blogg-buzz.com (a digg like site for bloggers), and I always get not a bad traffic from there.
9. Brandon Wood
A simple trick I’ve used to increase traffic to my blog is participate in group writing projects. In fact, that’s what I’m doing right now.
10. Kat
I’ve recently gotten involved with several “MySpace-like” community sites that focus on my target audience. I share my thoughts in their forums, post intros to my real blog on their system blog and I’ve even created a group for my specific niche. It’s been very, very successful for me.
11. Sridhar Katakam
Keep track of blogs and leave comments on them. How do you know which blogs to keep track of in the first place? Add the MyBlogLog widget/code to your blog. When
you notice a MyBlogLog user visiting your blog, visit that person’s in turn.
12. Ian Delaney
Nothing creates long-term traffic more than value. Making a post along the lines of ‘Evaluated resources for XYZ’ is useful. Useful things get linked to and they get onto del.icio.us, which is far better long-term than a digg front page.
13. Guido
Comment on blogs, write useful content and make good friends on forums.
14. Grant Gerver
Try to be polemic. I write obsessively about all-things political from the left-wing perspective in the form of humorous, sarcastic one-liners.
15. Megan Taylor
Participate in conversations on related blogs. Start conversations on your own blog. Don’t just post about a story and leave it at that, engage your audience.
16. Ramen Junkie
Newsgroups. I always see a spike when I post a review to a newsgroup.
17. KWiz
Write something controversial. I don’t think it’s good to write something controversial just for the purpose of getting traffic necessarily (especially if it’s only for that purpose and you’re being disingenuous), but it works.
18. Jester
Leave comments on other blogs. If you’re already reading them, it takes just a couple of seconds to leave a message agreeing or disagreeing with the author, you get to leave a link to your site, and you will almost ALWAYS get traffic from your comments.
19. Engtech
Community. It’s one word but it is the most important one when it comes to blogging. The only “blog metric” that makes sense is the vibrant community of readers it has. Building a community around your blog will bring you increased traffic, but how do you start? The boilerplate response to building traffic is always “SEO, social networking sites, and commenting on blogs” but it can be simplified to “be part of a community”. The easiest way to seed your blog is with an already existing community. But the only way to do that is to be part of the community yourself.
20. Goerge Manty
Post 3-5 times a day. Use ping services like pingomatic or setting up wordpress to ping some of the ping services. Engage your readers. Put up polls, ask them questions, give them quizes, free tools, etc. Make them want to come back and tell their friends about you.
21. Mark Alves
Participate in Yahoo Answers and LinkedIn Answers where you can demonstrate your expertise, get associated with relevant keywords and put your URL out there.
22. Andrew Timberlake
A great tip for generating traffic is off-line by including your url in all your off-line liturature from business cards, letterheads, pamphlets, adverts through in-store signage if applicable. I even have our website on my vehicle.
23. Scott Townsend
Inform search engines and aggregators like Technorati (using the ping functionality) when your blog is updated, this should ensure maximum traffic coming from those sources.
24. Jen Gordon
I came upon some unexpected traffic when my blog popped up on some css design portals like www.cssmania.com and www.webcreme.com. If you can put some time into the concept behind and design for your blog, I’d recommend submitting your site to a design portal not only for
additional traffic but to build an additional community around your site.
25. Chris
Squidoo Lenses are a good way to generate traffic. By using a lense, you can generate your own custom “community” of webpages, including some of the more popular pages in your “neighborhood.” Including your own webpage in such a list is a good way of generating traffic.
26. Kyle
Simplify. Pay attention to complex issues in your field of work. It may be a big long publication that is hard to wade through or a concept that is hard to grasp. Reference it and make a shorter “for dummies” version with your own lessons learned and relevant tips. When doing this, I have been surprised to find that the simplified post will appear before the more complex version in search results. Perhaps this is why it results in increased traffic; people looking for more help or clarification on the subject will land on your blog.
27. Nick
Participating in forums is a great way to get loyal readers. Either link baiting people in your signature or posting great advice and tips will give you high quality traffic, which will result in return visitors.
28. Cory OBrien
Read lots of other blogs. Leave trackbacks. Make sure your blog is optimized for search engines. Leverage social bookmarking sites like digg (both for new ideas and for traffic).
29. Shankar Ganesh
Just browse around MyBlogLog.com and you will surely get visitors to your blog.
I think I should start these Group Projects on my blog as well, what do you think? :-)
Update: There was another tip added to this group project, so now there are actually 30 tips:
30. Rory
Submit articles to blog carnivals. Your article almost always gets posted, and it must generate a handful of visitors, at least.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Applying Retail Concepts to the Web
Applying Retail Concepts to the Web
August 2007 - Lisa Rummler
Email This Article To A Friend - Print This Article
Of all the things the Internet has done to improve the way we live, one of the top ways has to be shopping. From sneakers to cereal, you can buy pretty much anything online, and you can do so in the comfort of your home, wearing pajamas and eating cookie dough out of a bowl.
But if a retailer’s Web site is not easy to navigate, or if it doesn’t incorporate integral aspects of a brick-and-mortar store, the convenience of online shopping is canceled out.
That’s where Web experts come in, such as Mike Maddaloni, president of Dunkirk Systems a Chicago-based consulting firm that delivers Internet solutions.
In helping retail customers develop their Web sites, Maddaloni said he tries to position himself as a sort of business adviser with a vested interest in the companies.
“I’ve been fortunate to bring a lot of customers to the Internet for the first time, and a lot of them have been established businesses,” he said. “I tell them that they’re the subject-matter experts — they know their business, they know their industry, they know their customers. They might not necessarily know how their customers are using the Internet, and that’s where any Internet professional should be able to come in and help them.”
Accordingly, Maddaloni said the Web professional or professionals working on a retailer’s site must have a firm grasp of what it does (that is, what it sells) and the elements that define that particular retailer or make it stand out from its competitors.
“I try to understand their business as best as possible, whether it’s going into their facility or just sitting down with them,” he said. “I have some of my clients’ products in my office because I want to know what they are, what they’re doing and how they want to portray that on the Internet. A lot of times, people forget that element of it when they’re coming in.”
Additionally, Maddaloni said the Web provides a way for retailers to replicate what goes on in their stores, but it’s important to take it to the next level.
“The Internet is a tool — it can be another channel,” he said. “There are a lot of things from the day-to-day business of how a retailer is working that apply to the Internet. Then, it’s a matter of, ‘How does it work with regard to the Internet?’ For example, we’ll synchronize coupon codes or discount programs so that a client can carry that through to their Web site.”
The application of some retail concepts differs on the Internet, however, including pricing — the Web levels the playing field, so to speak.
“Some physical stores in one location or one part of the country could have one price of something as compared with another physical location that has a different price,” Maddaloni said. “There’s a little more transparency with the Internet because companies that have tried different methods of having certain pricing in different areas, whether they’re using cookies or detecting the IP address, and they’ve been called on that.”
The 24x7 nature of the Internet, although convenient for customers, can force retailers to staff call centers long after malls have closed for the day — another element of e-commerce brick-and-mortar retailers must keep in mind, Maddaloni said.
And if a retailer is known for its customer service, it must replicate that to the best of its abilities online, making customers feel welcome.
“There are ways to personalize the experience: You can welcome someone back. You can offer them suggested products based on what they’ve purchased in the past. You can provide things such as the ability for them to see what they’ve ordered in the past, once they’ve logged in. If it’s something they purchase frequently, you can offer the ability where they could either reorder what they’ve ordered in the past or set up a recurring order,” Maddaloni said. “And even if you don’t go to that extreme of offering those types of things, you can still use the design and layout of your site so that it’s not hard for someone to do business with you — a person doesn’t have to click too many times, that you offer a search of your products by keyword or a description.”
Further, the Internet allows retailers the opportunity to improve themselves in ways that are not possible with brick-and-mortar stores, which ultimately is an advantage for customers.
“If you go into Target once a week, Target doesn’t necessarily know that you’re shopping there once a week,” he said. “When you go back to a Web site for a merchant, if you log in and set a cookie, the merchant has a greater knowledge of the person, that he or she has ‘come in.’ You are able to offer additional discounts, additional products. Even if you’re at a smaller store, if you have different staff that work different days of the week, they don’t necessarily remember the customers. With the Web site, you have that ability through the knowledge of their past ordering, the knowledge of their order habits.
“There are a lot of ways to track users through a Web site — not just for the particular transaction but looking at, over time, hits to a Web site, overall usage by all users, etc. You can see how effective your store is. Are there certain products people are not buying? Are there certain sections of your Web site people are not visiting? Is because of low interest, or is it because people are unable to find that item? Those are improvements to your e-commerce store that you might not be able to make to your retail, brick-and-mortar store, unless people are asking, or if different clerks or employees are not tracking that information. That gives you a sort of centralized way of tracking the effectiveness of your e-commerce store.”
Source: http://www.certmag.com/articles/templates/CM_COMM_CRM_article.asp?articleid=2985&zoneid=171
August 2007 - Lisa Rummler
Email This Article To A Friend - Print This Article
Of all the things the Internet has done to improve the way we live, one of the top ways has to be shopping. From sneakers to cereal, you can buy pretty much anything online, and you can do so in the comfort of your home, wearing pajamas and eating cookie dough out of a bowl.
But if a retailer’s Web site is not easy to navigate, or if it doesn’t incorporate integral aspects of a brick-and-mortar store, the convenience of online shopping is canceled out.
That’s where Web experts come in, such as Mike Maddaloni, president of Dunkirk Systems a Chicago-based consulting firm that delivers Internet solutions.
In helping retail customers develop their Web sites, Maddaloni said he tries to position himself as a sort of business adviser with a vested interest in the companies.
“I’ve been fortunate to bring a lot of customers to the Internet for the first time, and a lot of them have been established businesses,” he said. “I tell them that they’re the subject-matter experts — they know their business, they know their industry, they know their customers. They might not necessarily know how their customers are using the Internet, and that’s where any Internet professional should be able to come in and help them.”
Accordingly, Maddaloni said the Web professional or professionals working on a retailer’s site must have a firm grasp of what it does (that is, what it sells) and the elements that define that particular retailer or make it stand out from its competitors.
“I try to understand their business as best as possible, whether it’s going into their facility or just sitting down with them,” he said. “I have some of my clients’ products in my office because I want to know what they are, what they’re doing and how they want to portray that on the Internet. A lot of times, people forget that element of it when they’re coming in.”
Additionally, Maddaloni said the Web provides a way for retailers to replicate what goes on in their stores, but it’s important to take it to the next level.
“The Internet is a tool — it can be another channel,” he said. “There are a lot of things from the day-to-day business of how a retailer is working that apply to the Internet. Then, it’s a matter of, ‘How does it work with regard to the Internet?’ For example, we’ll synchronize coupon codes or discount programs so that a client can carry that through to their Web site.”
The application of some retail concepts differs on the Internet, however, including pricing — the Web levels the playing field, so to speak.
“Some physical stores in one location or one part of the country could have one price of something as compared with another physical location that has a different price,” Maddaloni said. “There’s a little more transparency with the Internet because companies that have tried different methods of having certain pricing in different areas, whether they’re using cookies or detecting the IP address, and they’ve been called on that.”
The 24x7 nature of the Internet, although convenient for customers, can force retailers to staff call centers long after malls have closed for the day — another element of e-commerce brick-and-mortar retailers must keep in mind, Maddaloni said.
And if a retailer is known for its customer service, it must replicate that to the best of its abilities online, making customers feel welcome.
“There are ways to personalize the experience: You can welcome someone back. You can offer them suggested products based on what they’ve purchased in the past. You can provide things such as the ability for them to see what they’ve ordered in the past, once they’ve logged in. If it’s something they purchase frequently, you can offer the ability where they could either reorder what they’ve ordered in the past or set up a recurring order,” Maddaloni said. “And even if you don’t go to that extreme of offering those types of things, you can still use the design and layout of your site so that it’s not hard for someone to do business with you — a person doesn’t have to click too many times, that you offer a search of your products by keyword or a description.”
Further, the Internet allows retailers the opportunity to improve themselves in ways that are not possible with brick-and-mortar stores, which ultimately is an advantage for customers.
“If you go into Target once a week, Target doesn’t necessarily know that you’re shopping there once a week,” he said. “When you go back to a Web site for a merchant, if you log in and set a cookie, the merchant has a greater knowledge of the person, that he or she has ‘come in.’ You are able to offer additional discounts, additional products. Even if you’re at a smaller store, if you have different staff that work different days of the week, they don’t necessarily remember the customers. With the Web site, you have that ability through the knowledge of their past ordering, the knowledge of their order habits.
“There are a lot of ways to track users through a Web site — not just for the particular transaction but looking at, over time, hits to a Web site, overall usage by all users, etc. You can see how effective your store is. Are there certain products people are not buying? Are there certain sections of your Web site people are not visiting? Is because of low interest, or is it because people are unable to find that item? Those are improvements to your e-commerce store that you might not be able to make to your retail, brick-and-mortar store, unless people are asking, or if different clerks or employees are not tracking that information. That gives you a sort of centralized way of tracking the effectiveness of your e-commerce store.”
Source: http://www.certmag.com/articles/templates/CM_COMM_CRM_article.asp?articleid=2985&zoneid=171
Thursday, August 9, 2007
make money on blog
For Money-maKing. . .
* Signed up for a number of Ads Providers. . . Bidvertiser, AffiliateBot, AdBrite (just earlier)
* Signed up for a MyLot account.
* Signed up for SlashMySearch
For Traffic. . .
* Submitted to quite a number of blog directories.
* Added myself to Blogcatalog, MyblogLog and bumpzee.
* Submitted Stories to Digg.com
* Signed up for Associated content which i am yet to write my first article.
* Had Link exchanges with several bloggers.
For any Other:
* I added a WeekLy FreEbie feature on my blog which for this week, Harry Potter E-Book is up for Grabs! get your copy now!
These, among others were done by my own initiative, dictations, or any other guidance from other people. I did have friends whom i value their advises. And guys, for that, Thanks you! You know who you are. I hope i can make more friends and expand my Horizons.
My Earnings So Far. . .
-Expect not to see thousands, hundreds or even tens for that matter. Hey, afterall, im still starting out. Here's what i Got.
* SlashmySearch - $.246 (this i havent done anything. "Hulog ng langit" as we say. . .)
* AffiliateBot - $.91 (Lucky i got a few Clicks. . . Great! )
* Squidoo - $.25 ( Havent updated my Squidoo for ages! )
* MyLot -$.06 (I made 6 comments this week. I dont really got time as of now. If you could post/make comments more, You can earn Way More than i could. register here.
* Bidvertiser -$.08 (As you can see, I only have a single add unit. A single snippet. This figure means i need to tweak, tweak, tweak. )
Total Money Earned So Far - $1.7
This figure is qutie humble but ill take this as a challenge. I see this as an obstacle that needs to be surpassed. i just bear in mind that success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Expect more of this to come your way.
* Signed up for a number of Ads Providers. . . Bidvertiser, AffiliateBot, AdBrite (just earlier)
* Signed up for a MyLot account.
* Signed up for SlashMySearch
For Traffic. . .
* Submitted to quite a number of blog directories.
* Added myself to Blogcatalog, MyblogLog and bumpzee.
* Submitted Stories to Digg.com
* Signed up for Associated content which i am yet to write my first article.
* Had Link exchanges with several bloggers.
For any Other:
* I added a WeekLy FreEbie feature on my blog which for this week, Harry Potter E-Book is up for Grabs! get your copy now!
These, among others were done by my own initiative, dictations, or any other guidance from other people. I did have friends whom i value their advises. And guys, for that, Thanks you! You know who you are. I hope i can make more friends and expand my Horizons.
My Earnings So Far. . .
-Expect not to see thousands, hundreds or even tens for that matter. Hey, afterall, im still starting out. Here's what i Got.
* SlashmySearch - $.246 (this i havent done anything. "Hulog ng langit" as we say. . .)
* AffiliateBot - $.91 (Lucky i got a few Clicks. . . Great! )
* Squidoo - $.25 ( Havent updated my Squidoo for ages! )
* MyLot -$.06 (I made 6 comments this week. I dont really got time as of now. If you could post/make comments more, You can earn Way More than i could. register here.
* Bidvertiser -$.08 (As you can see, I only have a single add unit. A single snippet. This figure means i need to tweak, tweak, tweak. )
Total Money Earned So Far - $1.7
This figure is qutie humble but ill take this as a challenge. I see this as an obstacle that needs to be surpassed. i just bear in mind that success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Expect more of this to come your way.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Case Study: How to run a great competition on your blog
Case Study: How to run a great competition on your blog
As an online marketing consultant with a special interest in blogging, one of the ways I tell my clients they can generate a lot of interest in (and traffic to) their site is to run a competition. A competition can generate masses of good (and free) PR for your site, it can “position” you as an online leader in your industry or niche, and it can have tremendous flow-on effects for your entrants as well, in terms of “link love” and exposure, especially.
But a competition run badly can be worse than none at all. So what does a competition run well look like?
Well, wouldn’t you know it, in the middle of looking for one, it came to me! RemodelingMySpace.com approached me for a paid review (via ReviewMe.com), so before accepting the review I did some research on their site to see what their competition was all about. And sure enough I fairly quickly realised someone behind the scenes had a pretty good idea what they were doing, and it would make a great case study for my readers (you!) on how to run a successful competition targeting bloggers.
Who Are RemodelingMySpace.com?
RemodelingMySpace.com is about half-way between a resource/tutorial site and a blog, meaning that the team have worked very hard (and quickly) to build on a strong base of high-quality content. And that is a point I keep making ad nauseam: make sure there’s real steak along with the sizzle. You can’t get away with broken promises for long, and a website that lacks quality content is — when all’s said and done — breaking the promises that your marketing is making. Think about it.
RemodelingMySpace.com launched in December 2006 (four months ago) as a “remodeling idea and how-to aggregator,” and with the goal of becoming the authority site on “remodeling and how-to inspiration and information.” Just four months from launch and the site looks a whole lot older and more established than you’d imagine, which is a credit to the team, who have gathered a list of expert bloggers and some attractive how-to video content.
(Note to self to post about the huge value of adding audio and video to your/my blog!)
The Competition: $5000 Remodel, Blog and Win Contest
The competition RemodelingMySpace.com have launched dangles a very attractive $5000 carrot in front of anyone who reckons they can do a good, creative job of retelling the story of their recent/current remodelling project on their blog. The winner will be chosen both for the creativity they display in the way they present their remodelling project on their blog, as well as for the creativity of the project itself (things like use of space, materials, budget, and so forth).
Actually, the competition promises a lot more than that. There are a range of other prizes and value-adds for competitors which strengthen the overall “value proposition” of the competition for the entrants, and this reflects some sharp thinking on the part of the organizers. In fact, they’ve created a page just dedicated to listing all the benefits of entering (and they’re not just “hot air” things, either).
Paul Marek, one of the team at RemodelingMySpace.com, explains the benefits like this:
It’s simple. All the exposure we’ll be generating for the contest will be passed on directly to the entrants. It’s really a win-win situation for everyone involved, not to mention the great $5,000 first prize, plus our $1,000 People’s Choice Award and the $250 Random Voters Award. With so many ways to win it really makes sense to “enter now”!
I’m going to quickly summarise the important points (as I see them) from that page, and I’d encourage you as a blogger to be thinking about how these might apply with a competition you might run on your blog:
A first prize of $5000.
That’s enough money to really make a difference to someone’s remodeling project, but not too much to send RemodelingMySpace.com broke. My point would be this: like it or not, the prize matters. Many people will make the decision to read on or pass your competition by based on the first prize only. It’s like the lowest common denominator of competitions, and if your first prize doesn’t grab people immediately, they’ll move on. Do I hear someone yelling, “SHOW ME THE MONEY!”?
A “People’s Choice” award of $1000.
What makes this second form of prize such a great idea is nothing to do with the money… it’s the dynamic of peer review. It means a whole “community” experience is engendered on the site as fellow entrants and passers-by cast their votes for or against a given remodeling project, or leave comments. I got tired of saying this in about 1999, but here goes again: information MUST be leveraged with interactivity!
The promise of increased traffic and exposure.
The guys over at RemodelingMySpace.com obviously know how to scratch where many bloggers itch, with the promise of more traffic! And I think it’s a promise they can deliver on. Think about it… entrants to this competition can be sure of one thing: incoming traffic from RemodelingMySpace.com is guaranteed to be targeted!
A promotional partnership with Contractors.com.
This “deal” with Contractors.com will see entrants’ blogs promoted on that website to, I would assume, a much larger audience than RemodelingMySpace.com may currently have. That’s a very smart strategy. (Quantcast estimates contractors.com’s traffic at over 66,000 unique US visitors per month.)
A great way to connect with other remodelers.
If the Joe Average entrant to the competition is mad keen about both remodeling and blogging, then these other entrants are the blogs he/she stands a very good likelihood of getting excited about. “Birds of a feather,” and all that. I would never want you to underestimate the value your blog can be as a meeting-place for like-passioned readers. (Liz Strauss is a guru at making her blog just that kind of place, by the way.)
How To Run A Competition Targeting Bloggers
So what are the take-aways for you, dear blogger? What can you learn from RemodelingMySpace.com about running a competition on your blog?
Know your audience well!
It’s clear the team at RemodelingMySpace.com know their market well. They’re running an online competition targeting bloggers who have done some remodelling and want to proudly display their handiwork. Their competition creates an audience of eyes for each entrant. Even if the entrant doesn’t win, he/she has satisfied that primal desire to “tell the world” about their project… after all, that’s why they’re blogging in the first place, right?!
Set the bar at the right height.
If I’m a great, creative blogger and only average at home remodeling, I stand as good a chance at winning as the semi-retired cabinetmaker who’s updating his kitchen, but is scared of his computer. In other words, by splitting the judging criteria in this way, RemodelingMySpace.com have saved people in both camps from the feeling that they probably couldn’t win. Both now DO stand a fighting chance. That’s call setting the bar at the right height, or in other words, designing smart/appropriate judging criteria… that are inclusive, achievable and fun.
Get everyone participating, not just watching.
The guys at RemodelingMySpace.com didn’t put voting and commenting in there just because the technology was there to be used. They have recognised what it is that makes social networks like MySpace and Flickr so powerful: user interaction. In particular, the People’s Choice award harnesses this urge to participate.
Get everyone promoting, too.
The question here is, “What are you doing to help people easily promote their entry in your competition on their site, and in their emails even?” RemodelingMySpace.com have an entire page of button and banners for this purpose, which is excellent, but they’ve also given the entrants their own “Vote For Me” buttons. This is called covering all the bases well. Of course, there’s another sweetener here for your own blog: all the inbound links from these buttons pointing back to your competition page!
Reward the reader, not just the entrant.
No matter how good the competition, most readers will not convert into entrants, so what do you have for them?! RemodelingMySpace.com rises to this challenge with their whole voting system (as well as all the site’s other content), but I’d go further. Perhaps an email alerting system so that every time a new entrant lists, readers can subscribe to be notified by email?
Communicate, communicate, communicate.
Competitions can run for months. This one does. Which means you need to keep it alive for people who may not keep coming to your site of their own fee will. That means getting their email address and keeping them informed (which is why RemodelingMySpace.com has registered voting, as well as an unregistered variety). You also need to keep blogging about it regularly with updates, announcements of every new competitor, etc. You might also introduce milestone awards… whatever it takes to have an excuse to keep talking about it!
Do the Social Media Marketing (SMM) well.
I noticed that this competition page is doing very well on StumbleUpon (I added my thumbs up there too). Is that by design or default, do you think?! I haven’t looked but I assume similar encouragements are being put to all readers and entrants to bookmark that page to the various and most popular bookmarking services too. Why? Because it’s cheap and (can be) very effective marketing for the competition!
I’ll stop at seven points. Do you have more? If you’ve run an effective competition on your blog, what worked a treat for you? If you think I’ve missed an important point here, please drop a comment and let us know.
Step Into an Entrant’s Shoes
The final advice I have for bloggers keen to run good, successful, win-win competitions for their readers is this: be an entrant!
At the end of the day, other than trying to run one, the best way I can suggest to learn how to run a good competition is to be an entrant in someone else’s. Certainly I would suggest this competition as a starting point, if you have recently completed (or are in the middle of) a remodeling project. It would be a great learning experience for you, in more ways than one, I’m sure.
I have has a look at some of the entrants so far, and I’m really impressed. We’re not talking a single blog post here; some of these people have entire blogs covering months of remodeling work and very detailed blogging about it all. But again, don’t be intimidated because the judging criteria are designed to be broad enough for great bloggers, great remodelers and everyone in-between
The Remodel, Blog and Win competition runs through to August 24, 2007, so you still have plenty of time to take the photos, and get creative!
Disclaimer
This is a sponsored post. My policy with sponsored posts is to accept only those products or services about which I can write a (generally) positive review which represents true value for my readers. If I don’t respect the product or service, or if I do not see how I can write a post that (I think) is genuinely valuable to my readers, I will not accept the sponsorship. My sponsored posts are brokered by ReviewMe.com.
Share This
This entry was written by Alister Cameron and posted on 11 April 2007 at 6:42 pm and tagged: blog competition, blog marketing, blog promotions, Blogging, case studies, competitions, contests, home improvement, home remodeling, home renovation, Marketing, online competitions, remodeling, remodelling, renovation, renovations, SEO. // Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. // Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
As an online marketing consultant with a special interest in blogging, one of the ways I tell my clients they can generate a lot of interest in (and traffic to) their site is to run a competition. A competition can generate masses of good (and free) PR for your site, it can “position” you as an online leader in your industry or niche, and it can have tremendous flow-on effects for your entrants as well, in terms of “link love” and exposure, especially.
But a competition run badly can be worse than none at all. So what does a competition run well look like?
Well, wouldn’t you know it, in the middle of looking for one, it came to me! RemodelingMySpace.com approached me for a paid review (via ReviewMe.com), so before accepting the review I did some research on their site to see what their competition was all about. And sure enough I fairly quickly realised someone behind the scenes had a pretty good idea what they were doing, and it would make a great case study for my readers (you!) on how to run a successful competition targeting bloggers.
Who Are RemodelingMySpace.com?
RemodelingMySpace.com is about half-way between a resource/tutorial site and a blog, meaning that the team have worked very hard (and quickly) to build on a strong base of high-quality content. And that is a point I keep making ad nauseam: make sure there’s real steak along with the sizzle. You can’t get away with broken promises for long, and a website that lacks quality content is — when all’s said and done — breaking the promises that your marketing is making. Think about it.
RemodelingMySpace.com launched in December 2006 (four months ago) as a “remodeling idea and how-to aggregator,” and with the goal of becoming the authority site on “remodeling and how-to inspiration and information.” Just four months from launch and the site looks a whole lot older and more established than you’d imagine, which is a credit to the team, who have gathered a list of expert bloggers and some attractive how-to video content.
(Note to self to post about the huge value of adding audio and video to your/my blog!)
The Competition: $5000 Remodel, Blog and Win Contest
The competition RemodelingMySpace.com have launched dangles a very attractive $5000 carrot in front of anyone who reckons they can do a good, creative job of retelling the story of their recent/current remodelling project on their blog. The winner will be chosen both for the creativity they display in the way they present their remodelling project on their blog, as well as for the creativity of the project itself (things like use of space, materials, budget, and so forth).
Actually, the competition promises a lot more than that. There are a range of other prizes and value-adds for competitors which strengthen the overall “value proposition” of the competition for the entrants, and this reflects some sharp thinking on the part of the organizers. In fact, they’ve created a page just dedicated to listing all the benefits of entering (and they’re not just “hot air” things, either).
Paul Marek, one of the team at RemodelingMySpace.com, explains the benefits like this:
It’s simple. All the exposure we’ll be generating for the contest will be passed on directly to the entrants. It’s really a win-win situation for everyone involved, not to mention the great $5,000 first prize, plus our $1,000 People’s Choice Award and the $250 Random Voters Award. With so many ways to win it really makes sense to “enter now”!
I’m going to quickly summarise the important points (as I see them) from that page, and I’d encourage you as a blogger to be thinking about how these might apply with a competition you might run on your blog:
A first prize of $5000.
That’s enough money to really make a difference to someone’s remodeling project, but not too much to send RemodelingMySpace.com broke. My point would be this: like it or not, the prize matters. Many people will make the decision to read on or pass your competition by based on the first prize only. It’s like the lowest common denominator of competitions, and if your first prize doesn’t grab people immediately, they’ll move on. Do I hear someone yelling, “SHOW ME THE MONEY!”?
A “People’s Choice” award of $1000.
What makes this second form of prize such a great idea is nothing to do with the money… it’s the dynamic of peer review. It means a whole “community” experience is engendered on the site as fellow entrants and passers-by cast their votes for or against a given remodeling project, or leave comments. I got tired of saying this in about 1999, but here goes again: information MUST be leveraged with interactivity!
The promise of increased traffic and exposure.
The guys over at RemodelingMySpace.com obviously know how to scratch where many bloggers itch, with the promise of more traffic! And I think it’s a promise they can deliver on. Think about it… entrants to this competition can be sure of one thing: incoming traffic from RemodelingMySpace.com is guaranteed to be targeted!
A promotional partnership with Contractors.com.
This “deal” with Contractors.com will see entrants’ blogs promoted on that website to, I would assume, a much larger audience than RemodelingMySpace.com may currently have. That’s a very smart strategy. (Quantcast estimates contractors.com’s traffic at over 66,000 unique US visitors per month.)
A great way to connect with other remodelers.
If the Joe Average entrant to the competition is mad keen about both remodeling and blogging, then these other entrants are the blogs he/she stands a very good likelihood of getting excited about. “Birds of a feather,” and all that. I would never want you to underestimate the value your blog can be as a meeting-place for like-passioned readers. (Liz Strauss is a guru at making her blog just that kind of place, by the way.)
How To Run A Competition Targeting Bloggers
So what are the take-aways for you, dear blogger? What can you learn from RemodelingMySpace.com about running a competition on your blog?
Know your audience well!
It’s clear the team at RemodelingMySpace.com know their market well. They’re running an online competition targeting bloggers who have done some remodelling and want to proudly display their handiwork. Their competition creates an audience of eyes for each entrant. Even if the entrant doesn’t win, he/she has satisfied that primal desire to “tell the world” about their project… after all, that’s why they’re blogging in the first place, right?!
Set the bar at the right height.
If I’m a great, creative blogger and only average at home remodeling, I stand as good a chance at winning as the semi-retired cabinetmaker who’s updating his kitchen, but is scared of his computer. In other words, by splitting the judging criteria in this way, RemodelingMySpace.com have saved people in both camps from the feeling that they probably couldn’t win. Both now DO stand a fighting chance. That’s call setting the bar at the right height, or in other words, designing smart/appropriate judging criteria… that are inclusive, achievable and fun.
Get everyone participating, not just watching.
The guys at RemodelingMySpace.com didn’t put voting and commenting in there just because the technology was there to be used. They have recognised what it is that makes social networks like MySpace and Flickr so powerful: user interaction. In particular, the People’s Choice award harnesses this urge to participate.
Get everyone promoting, too.
The question here is, “What are you doing to help people easily promote their entry in your competition on their site, and in their emails even?” RemodelingMySpace.com have an entire page of button and banners for this purpose, which is excellent, but they’ve also given the entrants their own “Vote For Me” buttons. This is called covering all the bases well. Of course, there’s another sweetener here for your own blog: all the inbound links from these buttons pointing back to your competition page!
Reward the reader, not just the entrant.
No matter how good the competition, most readers will not convert into entrants, so what do you have for them?! RemodelingMySpace.com rises to this challenge with their whole voting system (as well as all the site’s other content), but I’d go further. Perhaps an email alerting system so that every time a new entrant lists, readers can subscribe to be notified by email?
Communicate, communicate, communicate.
Competitions can run for months. This one does. Which means you need to keep it alive for people who may not keep coming to your site of their own fee will. That means getting their email address and keeping them informed (which is why RemodelingMySpace.com has registered voting, as well as an unregistered variety). You also need to keep blogging about it regularly with updates, announcements of every new competitor, etc. You might also introduce milestone awards… whatever it takes to have an excuse to keep talking about it!
Do the Social Media Marketing (SMM) well.
I noticed that this competition page is doing very well on StumbleUpon (I added my thumbs up there too). Is that by design or default, do you think?! I haven’t looked but I assume similar encouragements are being put to all readers and entrants to bookmark that page to the various and most popular bookmarking services too. Why? Because it’s cheap and (can be) very effective marketing for the competition!
I’ll stop at seven points. Do you have more? If you’ve run an effective competition on your blog, what worked a treat for you? If you think I’ve missed an important point here, please drop a comment and let us know.
Step Into an Entrant’s Shoes
The final advice I have for bloggers keen to run good, successful, win-win competitions for their readers is this: be an entrant!
At the end of the day, other than trying to run one, the best way I can suggest to learn how to run a good competition is to be an entrant in someone else’s. Certainly I would suggest this competition as a starting point, if you have recently completed (or are in the middle of) a remodeling project. It would be a great learning experience for you, in more ways than one, I’m sure.
I have has a look at some of the entrants so far, and I’m really impressed. We’re not talking a single blog post here; some of these people have entire blogs covering months of remodeling work and very detailed blogging about it all. But again, don’t be intimidated because the judging criteria are designed to be broad enough for great bloggers, great remodelers and everyone in-between
The Remodel, Blog and Win competition runs through to August 24, 2007, so you still have plenty of time to take the photos, and get creative!
Disclaimer
This is a sponsored post. My policy with sponsored posts is to accept only those products or services about which I can write a (generally) positive review which represents true value for my readers. If I don’t respect the product or service, or if I do not see how I can write a post that (I think) is genuinely valuable to my readers, I will not accept the sponsorship. My sponsored posts are brokered by ReviewMe.com.
Share This
This entry was written by Alister Cameron and posted on 11 April 2007 at 6:42 pm and tagged: blog competition, blog marketing, blog promotions, Blogging, case studies, competitions, contests, home improvement, home remodeling, home renovation, Marketing, online competitions, remodeling, remodelling, renovation, renovations, SEO. // Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. // Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Product manager hiring questions
Independently echoed some of my own concerns about my product - if you're a good PM, you've got a bunch of things that worry you about your own product. Maybe they're UI shortcomings, missing features, or architecture flaws that need to be addressed. They're things you know need to be fixed. At least some of these should be obvious to an intelligent outsider with strong product instincts. I look for that moment in the interview when I smile, nod, and say "yeah, I know - that's been driving us crazy too."
Taught me something new about my product - it could be an obvious improvement that I'd never considered, a new idea for positioning against a competitor, or a problem they encountered that needs to be addressed. When I learn something from a candidate, I know two things: (1) they're not afraid to speak critically, and (2) they're probably smarter than me. I want both in a product manager.
Turned me on to something new and interesting - people with great product instincts tend to notice great products before everyone else. If I'm interviewing a top-notch candidate, I usually walk away having discovered something new and innovative.
Here are some good questions for judging product instincts:
Tell me about a great product you've encountered recently. Why do you like it? [By the way, it drives me crazy when candidates name one of my products in an interview. I had a hard time hiring anybody at Yahoo! who told me the coolest product they'd come across recently was Yahoo! Good grief.]
What's made [insert product here] successful? [I usually pick a popular product, like the iPod or eBay, that's won over consumers handily in a crowded market.]
What do you dislike about my product? How would you improve it?
What problems are we going to encounter in a year? Two years? Ten years?
How do you know a product is well designed?
What's one of the best ideas you've ever had?
What is one of the worst?
How do you know when to cut corners to get a product out the door?
What lessons have you learned about user interface design?
How do you decide what not to build?
What was your biggest product mistake?
What aspects of product management do you find the least interesting and why?
Do you consider yourself creative?
Source: http://heynorton.typepad.com/blog/2005/06/how_to_hire_pro.html
Taught me something new about my product - it could be an obvious improvement that I'd never considered, a new idea for positioning against a competitor, or a problem they encountered that needs to be addressed. When I learn something from a candidate, I know two things: (1) they're not afraid to speak critically, and (2) they're probably smarter than me. I want both in a product manager.
Turned me on to something new and interesting - people with great product instincts tend to notice great products before everyone else. If I'm interviewing a top-notch candidate, I usually walk away having discovered something new and innovative.
Here are some good questions for judging product instincts:
Tell me about a great product you've encountered recently. Why do you like it? [By the way, it drives me crazy when candidates name one of my products in an interview. I had a hard time hiring anybody at Yahoo! who told me the coolest product they'd come across recently was Yahoo! Good grief.]
What's made [insert product here] successful? [I usually pick a popular product, like the iPod or eBay, that's won over consumers handily in a crowded market.]
What do you dislike about my product? How would you improve it?
What problems are we going to encounter in a year? Two years? Ten years?
How do you know a product is well designed?
What's one of the best ideas you've ever had?
What is one of the worst?
How do you know when to cut corners to get a product out the door?
What lessons have you learned about user interface design?
How do you decide what not to build?
What was your biggest product mistake?
What aspects of product management do you find the least interesting and why?
Do you consider yourself creative?
Source: http://heynorton.typepad.com/blog/2005/06/how_to_hire_pro.html
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
12 Steps to Preparing for a Successful Launch
Excerpt from BusinessWeek article: 12 Steps to Preparing for a Successful Launch
1. We wrote the business plan in order to clarify our vision. We wrote our funding pitch in a PowerPoint presentation and our first year's budget in an Excel spreadsheet. We created a formula-based dynamic model so we could plug in numbers for different "what if" scenarios (what if our expenses were higher, what if our revenue were lower, etc.).
2. We mocked up our Web pages so others could visualize how our site would work and how consumers, retailers, manufacturers would interact with it. Always do this. Many people you'll pitch to will be visual.
3. We designed the architecture so others could visualize how we'd do certain product functions such as data analysis and data mining. Providing a schematic of the backend architecture helped boost our credibility with the potential client's information technology teams that would have to interface with our backend.
4. We got our first round of funding! We sold 33% percent of our company for 18 months' worth of operational cash.
5. We hired key staff: a VP of engineering, a VP of Sales, and a VP of marketing because this company was very engineering- and sales-intensive. We needed to have a solid architecture and we needed to get started on the incredibly long sales cycle for retailers and manufacturers.
Marketing worked on collateral—sales support material like brochures and data sheets—while the sales folks hung out with potential customers and asked for their suggestions on our product design. This helped get the potential customers more emotionally engaged in our success and increased their likelihood of buying a system they had helped design.
6. We secured our first customers (both retailers and manufacturers) and Web site strategic alliances. We raised our profile with trade associations and distributed a white paper we had written that illustrated the future of our business: online, targeted promotions. We positioned ourselves as the experts. This is like declaring victory as you're stepping onto the battlefield. Do it!
7. We launched a 90-day beta test.
8. We got our first consumers using the beta system. We gave countless speeches to manufacturers and retailers. Then we cranked up the PR engine and started getting press.
9. As a result of the above, we got more funding.
10. We demonstrated our product's data analysis capabilities to customers. They were wowed, and we were able to up-sell them to a more premium (read: expensive) service.
11. We expanded our customer base. We released a complete Version 1 of the system. We did zillions more speeches. Whew! That was a lot of talking for me and my executive staff! And we got more press.
12. And yep, you guessed it. We got more funding.
So you see, the launch process is cyclical. Each time there is a progression and growth associated with customers and press, more funding follows. You must repeatedly demonstrate growth with each step of the launch process.
Also, you don't need to pay a market research company big bucks to write a report on you. Like the companies Gartner Group, Jupiter, and Aberdeen, there are many reputable and influential (and expensive) groups that can raise the profile of your company.
I prefer gaining credibility from customer case studies, from showing specifically how you are solving problems as opposed to paying someone to write about you. You'll be written up once you've gained traction. So hunker down and get to work! That said, you may need the credibility boost of a research report from a third party if you are selling a six-digit product to enormous enterprises and your executive team doesn't have fabulous accomplishments in their past.
1. We wrote the business plan in order to clarify our vision. We wrote our funding pitch in a PowerPoint presentation and our first year's budget in an Excel spreadsheet. We created a formula-based dynamic model so we could plug in numbers for different "what if" scenarios (what if our expenses were higher, what if our revenue were lower, etc.).
2. We mocked up our Web pages so others could visualize how our site would work and how consumers, retailers, manufacturers would interact with it. Always do this. Many people you'll pitch to will be visual.
3. We designed the architecture so others could visualize how we'd do certain product functions such as data analysis and data mining. Providing a schematic of the backend architecture helped boost our credibility with the potential client's information technology teams that would have to interface with our backend.
4. We got our first round of funding! We sold 33% percent of our company for 18 months' worth of operational cash.
5. We hired key staff: a VP of engineering, a VP of Sales, and a VP of marketing because this company was very engineering- and sales-intensive. We needed to have a solid architecture and we needed to get started on the incredibly long sales cycle for retailers and manufacturers.
Marketing worked on collateral—sales support material like brochures and data sheets—while the sales folks hung out with potential customers and asked for their suggestions on our product design. This helped get the potential customers more emotionally engaged in our success and increased their likelihood of buying a system they had helped design.
6. We secured our first customers (both retailers and manufacturers) and Web site strategic alliances. We raised our profile with trade associations and distributed a white paper we had written that illustrated the future of our business: online, targeted promotions. We positioned ourselves as the experts. This is like declaring victory as you're stepping onto the battlefield. Do it!
7. We launched a 90-day beta test.
8. We got our first consumers using the beta system. We gave countless speeches to manufacturers and retailers. Then we cranked up the PR engine and started getting press.
9. As a result of the above, we got more funding.
10. We demonstrated our product's data analysis capabilities to customers. They were wowed, and we were able to up-sell them to a more premium (read: expensive) service.
11. We expanded our customer base. We released a complete Version 1 of the system. We did zillions more speeches. Whew! That was a lot of talking for me and my executive staff! And we got more press.
12. And yep, you guessed it. We got more funding.
So you see, the launch process is cyclical. Each time there is a progression and growth associated with customers and press, more funding follows. You must repeatedly demonstrate growth with each step of the launch process.
Also, you don't need to pay a market research company big bucks to write a report on you. Like the companies Gartner Group, Jupiter, and Aberdeen, there are many reputable and influential (and expensive) groups that can raise the profile of your company.
I prefer gaining credibility from customer case studies, from showing specifically how you are solving problems as opposed to paying someone to write about you. You'll be written up once you've gained traction. So hunker down and get to work! That said, you may need the credibility boost of a research report from a third party if you are selling a six-digit product to enormous enterprises and your executive team doesn't have fabulous accomplishments in their past.
quest for my blue ocean
Lately, I am finding that I am reading too many things, in fact, the amount of information that I'm looking at surpass my ability to retain all of them, thus this blog. I'm hoping that this will help me collect, collate, organize etc the knowledge I'm taking in. Most certainly I'm on a quest for my blue ocean, but before I get there, I need to de-fog my way to figure out what my next steps are. The really good stuff will make it to Osmosis Distilled.
Here I go.
Here I go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)