Social Web & Your Business

Here’s a new question in our mailbag.

Q: What are all the new gizmos on the blogs such as: RSS Feeds, Readers, Linked In, Del.icio.us,digg.com-if you like this post please”digg it”, reddit.com, myweb2, technorati, and how do you set these up on your sites or blogs and why are they important to have?

A: Hi there and thanks for sending this question in. Each one of these can be pretty big topics but I’ll do my best to condense it for you.

Technically speaking, blogs are simply a method of publishing content on the Internet. It is a whole lot easier to write your thoughts, publish an article or share information with a blog than it is using the more traditional methods of web publishing. The thing that makes blogs interesting and good for your business is how easy it is for you to reach out and connect with your prospects. It’s a great way to build relationship, get feedback, share about
your product in a less aggressive setting. If you’re new to the concept of using a blog in your business, I invite you to check out BloggingStarterPack.

RSS is a different technology even though it is often connected with blogs because almost all blogs have a feed. An RSS feed is a page (or file) that is continually updated as you update your website. When someone subscribes to the feed, with a feed reader, they get notified. So it’s a great way to get people to come back to your website, blog or at the very least stay tuned to you. But RSS can be used to share content between
two websites or used to syndicate headlines from one site to another as well. For a more thorough explanation, I have written a short report called RSS Basics and you can get that when you signup for my Marketing Technology Advisory newsletter.

Del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit, myweb2 are often known as social bookmarking sites. Basically they are like the Favorites you save on your browser but the biggest difference is the shareable nature. That means every time you book mark a website or a page to these sites, you are also sharing that bookmark with other people. The more people find that page/website interesting and bookmark them individually, the more popular that page/website is. So really, every time someone bookmarks or ‘diggs’ a site by thumbing up
or down that’s like voting for the quality of the site/page.

When you put all these thing together, it’s all about getting traffic. Blogs and RSS are more slow paced but long term traffic and social bookmark sites can bring you lots of traffic and fast. From minutes to a just a few hours.

To set them up on your blog or website depends what you are using. If you are using WordPress, you can use plugins like ShareThis. Some bookmarking sites also have ready made buttons so you can pick them up and paste into your website.

Helping Others to Find Work from Home: Be Unique & Set Yourself Apart

This week I received a question from Niki asking for help regarding how to go about setting up a business online to help others get a work at home jobs. Here’s her question, followed by my advice.

Alice,

“How are you? I have been reading your information for years and it is awesome. I was wondering if you could help me.

I am a recruiter and would like to start my own work at home or job site to help others get jobs. I just don’t know where to start to get my self out there. I know there are a lot of companies that hire from home workers and I thought it would be good for me to do this.

I do know that I would have to charge a small fee because of the amount of research I have put into it. Could you give me some advice?”

Niki

I’m doing well and thanks for asking Niki…and I really appreciate the feedback. It’s nice to know someone is listening. ;-)

The fact that you are a recruiter is a great way to break into the market you’re considering. I commend you for realizing where your strength lies and using that to your advantage.

That being said, as you might know there are about a cajillion work at home sites out there, so my biggest piece of advice would be to set yourself apart from the competition. What can you do different that hasn’t already been done a hundred times before? One way you might be able to do this is to market to a specific type of worker or company looking to hire help.

Another option to consider is partnering with individuals who already have websites that are attracting those looking to work from home. This may prove to be a more profitable avenue for you and the website owner if you can find some way to share revenues. If you choose to go down this particular path, again stop and think about what you can bring to the table that is unique to the partnership.

As you also know there is a ton of time invested in researching the jobs as well as posting them on a regular basis for your visitors. You’re smart to take this into account and I suggest that if you decide to go the route of charging a fee, you do so for the employers you are placing the job ads for, not those looking for work. There are tons of ways for people to find work from home positions without paying a fee of any kind. Not to mention, one of the first things people will tell those looking for at home work is to not pay for job leads. Definitely keep that in mind and I wasn’t sure if that’s what you meant in your question about charging a fee, so I wanted to clarify.

I’m hoping these suggestions will help you to combine your strengths as a recruiter and your desire to help others work from home. If you have more specific questions, please feel free to submit those as well.

What kind of seller are you?

I’ve been thinking about the many different aspects of eBay and how there are so many levels to participate on. It is interesting to me how eBay has provided such an opportunity for so many who want to work from home - and as I was thinking about this, I noticed that sellers really fall into three different categories:

Hobby sellers - those who sell here and there… they might be interested in making a profit; however, they don’t really depend on an income from anything they sell on eBay. They use it to get rid of their children’s outgrown clothes or things they don’t need anymore.

Business sellers - these sellers have built a business selling on eBay. They have a system in place and they use it to bring in the income they depend on.

Marketing sellers - These sellers use eBay as a marketing tool to grow their (other) business(es). They list occasionally - but, the purpose is to harness eBay traffic to drive it to their business sites. The idea really isn’t too far from how people use google to drive traffic.

What do you think? What kind of seller are you? What kind of seller would you like to be?

20 Leaders In Your Town That Need to Know YOU!

As a direct seller, your business is based on who you know and who knows you. You want to cultivate relationships with people with a WIDE circle of influence.

In this post, I will give you a list of people in your town who need to know you and in next week’s post I will give you tips and strategies for cultivating those relationships.

Here are the 21 Leaders:

-The Mayor
-The Mayor’s chief of staff
-Chairperson of the City Council
-Head of the School Board
-Head of the PTA/PTSA at your child’s or grandchild’s school
-High School Principal
-The Coach of the High School Football Team
-Business School Dean at the nearest college or university
-Chief of Police
-Cheif of the Fire Department
-Owner of the local newspaper
-Chief Editor of the Local Newspaper
-General manager of the nearest local TV Station
-President of the Local Chamber of Commerce
-Head of the local Rotary
-General Manager of the closest hospital or health center
-President of the local BNI chapter
-Branch Manager of the local bank
-HR Manager of the largest employer in town
-The minister(s) of the largest faith-based organization.

Start collecting the contact info for these leaders, because next week we will talk about how to start your relationship with them!

Love & Success!
Sarah

Starters vs Finishers

    I always have the next idea (or 10) bouncing around my brain.

      It’s very easy to get them started,
but very difficult to get them finished before moving on to the
next idea screaming in my head!!

As many of you know, this is ME!

Here’s one thing I’ve learned. There are starters and there are
finishers.

I am a starter. So I am building a team of finishers around me.
People who are good at details and can focus on one thing at a time.

And for those techies here who don’t have a clue what we’re talking
about, read The Edison Trait to understand us better.

  

Rhea!

Who is thankful for finishers

Are You The Media?

Podcasters are part of the media.  You are creating the media that the world will consume on it’s own terms, on it’s own schedule.  This is exciting stuff!

You may not feel like the media. 

You don’t sit behind a big desk in front of a battery of big studio cameras. You probably don’t sit behind thick glass with a fat condenser mic hanging in front of your face. 

But you’re still the media.

Paul Colligan drilled this into my mind earlier this year when he said ‘You da Media!’ over and over again. 

We ARE the Media. 

So what will you do in your role?  What will you share with the world - or at least your corner of it?

I’d like to hear what your hopes and ideas are for 2008.

10 Tips to a Winning Headline

The best writing, whether it is a sales letter, an article, or a book, has a compelling headline. A simple sentence that practically begs you to read it. Here are ten tips to create a winning headline:

1. How to headlines are fairly simple to construct. “How to lose 30 pounds in 10 days.” “How to live tax free forever.” “How to grow prize winning tomatoes,” and so on. This type of format is a good type to fall back on when you’re struggling for a headline. It easily catches a benefit right in the headline and grabs interest.

2. Question headlines are fun and they’re generally emotionally grabbing. For example, “Do you make these common copywriting mistakes?” It grabs reader interest because they automatically think, “I don’t know? Do I make these mistakes? Let me read more to find out?”

3. Ask yourself, does my headline promise a benefit to my reader?

4. Re-read your headline and make sure it is relevant to your product. Quite often you’ll find headlines that are immediately interesting and eye catching but really don’t have anything to do with the product being sold. “Sensationalized” copy generally isn’t appreciated by potential customers.

5. Is your headline clear and direct? Can you shorten it to be more specific? A general rule of thumb is to keep your headline under 12-15 words. If you feel the desire to be more verbose, consider a sub-headline.

6. Read your copy and edit for negative words. For example, don’t and no are both negative words. Instead of saying “You’ve now entered a no hype zone.” You can say, “We’re hype free.”

7. Let go of SEO stress. In order to get a high page ranking, it is often important to include your keywords in your headline, right? If you’re struggling to place your keywords logically into your headline try this instead. Place your keywords in front of your headline with a hyphen and then write your headline.

For example if your keyword is “dog house training” your headline will look like this: “Dog House Training – How to Eliminate Accidents in 2 Days or Less.”

8. Make your headline specific. Instead of saying “Double your profits fast.” A more specific headline is “Double your profits in 30 days or less.”

9. Write the headline for your audience. If you’re writing for professional chefs you’re going to use different words than you will if you’re writing for a computer programmer. While getting heavy handed with jargon may cause confusion, a few terms that are specific to your industry are perfectly acceptable. It lets your reader know you are talking to them specifically.

10. Come up with at least half a dozen potential headlines for your major sales pages and web copy. Give yourself time to ruminate on them. Try them out to see which fits and feels better and when all else fails, do a split test to see which one generates better results.

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