Hi, thought I’d do something different today and do a Video Blog (or Vlog as they are called).

Enjoy!

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Congratulations!  You’ve now thought about keywords and should be beginning to see the impact they can have on your online success.  But doing the research is only half the puzzle — now you have to use them. 

The first step is to review of your list of potential keywords  and keyword phrases and pick the one or two, but no more than three, of them to target.  You may have a list of 25 potentially dynamite keywords, but you cannot effectively go after all of them at once.  For each keyword or keyword phrase, think about how you would use it in a headline or sentence.  Sometimes keywords pop up that have a decent number of searches and almost no competition — because they are almost impossible to use in regular language.  You can choose to target those — but understand that it will make your job just that much tougher.

Before you do anything else, pull up a Google search box and type in the keywords or keyword phrases you have chosen.  Make note of the top ten results.  You want to be one of them within the next 60 to 90 days (or sooner).

Now get to work on your copy.  If you have a traditional website, ideally, all three keywords will appear on your website’s home page:  include all of your keywords at the top of the page; put at least one keyword or phrase in a headline or a subhead; at least one or possibly even two of your keywords or phrases should be in the first paragraph of the page; and make sure you add at least one in the last paragraph of the page.  If you can make the targeted phrase a logical hyperlink to another page in your site, Google will give you bonus points in your search rankings.  Note:  Make sure your keywords are in text, not artwork.  If your headlines and subheads are graphics and not text, Google may ignore them.

Make sure you include one, two, or all three of your targeted keywords in your page’s title and meta description and of course, include them in your web headers as meta keywords.  You can target different keywords on different pages of your website if each page is indexed separately.  That may be a little advanced for a basic website, but it’s something to keep in mind.

If you are using a WordPress or other blog format as your platform instead of a traditional website, you will want to make sure that each post has one or two keywords in it and that your targeted keywords are included as Categories and Post Tags.   If you have added an SEO plug-in for your WordPress blog, make sure you include your targeted keywords in your Title and Meta Description.

But don’t stop with your website or blog.  Now go into every directory your site has been listed in and re-write the description to include your keywords.  Pull up your profiles in LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook and add your keywords.  Begin a concentrated, targeted online campaign emphasizing those keywords.  Try to use those targeted keywords in your Twitter updates, on your Facebook wall, in articles submitted to article directories, and in press releases.  Add your website or blog to different social bookmarking sites and include your keywords in your profiles.

Finally, set up Google alerts to track your keywords or keyword phrases.  As you start to use the phrases more and more, you should start to see your site or marketing efforts pop up.  This will give you an idea of where Google is recognizing the phrase and you can adjust your copy or marketing efforts accordingly.

Give it a shot.  I would love to hear your success stories in a couple months.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S.  SPECIAL OFFER:  

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We produce a different kind of website analysis report, one that’s actually relevant to your goals. Most SEO analysis reports are canned. They use stock software to ”analyze” your website based on computer driven formulas, or even worse- copy and paste information from a grab-bag of resources. They produce results that have been predefined and offer nothing more than useless information.  Heck, a lot of them don’t even really look at your website.  They plug your URL into a software package and take what gets spit out and hand it to you, expecting it to make a difference.  Their reports might as well land in the trash for all the good they do.

Unlike the competition, we actually go on your site, read the content and check all the links.  Sure, we’ll run a software program or two to get us some baseline information from Google, but the meat of our report is a result of over 20 years of sales and marketing experience, including the last 5 years heavily invested in learning SEO and online marketing strategies.  We give you an ACTION PLAN of steps   you can implement right away to improve your website’s performance.  Not listed in enough directories?  We’ll give you a list.  Not utilizing social media effectively?  We’ll get you specific suggestions on how to improve.  Don’t know what to say in a forum?  We’ll provide you with a suggested topic list, as well as suggestions on what forums and how often you should participate.  Every website and market is different, and every Action Plan should be, too.

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Adventures in Uncovering the Mysteries of Facebook Demographic Targeting

If you are at all in tune with the world of social media, you probably heard about all the changes Facebook has been making the past couple weeks.  One of the big changes is that Facebook   is going to start aggregating the data from all the websites you “like” on the web and is going to make that data available to marketers.

Now, wearing my small business consultant and marketer hat, I’m absolutely drooling at the possibilities of being able to talk to exactly who I want as a customer.  But wearing my advocate of privacy and “no one needs to know that I sometimes visit certain celebrity blogs” hat, I’m leery.

But Facebook already has an awesome database available for marketers.  And my clients and I are proof.  I was working with a client on Friday who showed me the ad she had put out on Facebook last week.  She is selling a customized Sham-moo Shammy package (very similar to the as-seen-on-TV ShamWow) as a promotional give-away for companies like car dealers, marinas, motor home manufacturers, and car enthusiasts.  She had very wisely targeted men in certain age categories, in certain professions, and with certain hobbies.  In about 2 days, she had garnered 161 clicks through to her website but no sales.  But she is only spending $.32 per click, so it wasn’t outrageously expensive.    I suggested some changes to her ad and to her conversion page, and showed her how to get a code for $50 in free Facebook ad credits, and she’ll be running it again this week.

But as we were working on her Facebook page, an ad popped up for a set of exercise CDs.  We commented on how eye-catching the ad was and I said I had never seen it before.  She said she sees it every day and then said, “I think I get it because my husband and I go dancing.”  Wow.  A consumer who knows why they are being targeted.   A few minutes later, it was for a fat-burning muffin.  A little bit later, we noticed an ad for a nutritional supplement.  So on a whim, we pulled up her profile.  Sure enough, among her interests are dancing and health.

Later that evening, I got on Facebook.  And on my home page, I have an ad, no, not for an exercise CD, not for a nutritional supplement, nothing nearly so healthy.  My ad is for Oscar Mayer hotdogs.  Oscar Mayer?    The next ad that pops up is for Taylor-made golf clubs.  That makes sense, I like to golf.  Then an ad for a bouquet of flowers appears.  Ok, I have a mom and it is Mother’s Day next week.  The next ad is for real estate funding.  Great targeting because I dabble in real estate investing and am connected to lots of real estate folks. 

And then another Oscar Mayer ad, this one touting a contest to get a ride in the Wienermobile.  Oh No!  How did they know?   Is it possible that Oscar Mayer somehow has a record of everyone who has ever ridden in the Wienermobile  (which I did in 2001 – see!). 

Never thought anyone would ever find out

 Did they somehow share that information with Facebook?  Believe me, there is nothing in my profile that screams hotdog lover.  Or is there?

Let’s see, I don’t have k ids, so that’s not it.  I’m female. Females tend to do the household shopping. So they may just be targeting females of a certain age.  I love golf, reading, and … Cleveland Indians baseball.  Ah, could it be the baseball?  Nothing else really makes sense.  It has to be that they are either targeting females, people who like baseball, or maybe even females who like baseball.  Or they might just be excluding people with healthy activities and lifestyles.  Whew, at least I think my secret fascination with the Wienermobile hasn’t been leaked, yet.

But the moral of the story:  if you are getting ads that don’t seem to be targeted to you, you may want to look at your profile and figure out why.  Then think about your product or service and try to come up with characteristics that would be shared by the majority of your target audience.   How could you get an ad in front of them?  There is going to be so much data available, it’ll be your own fault if you are talking to the wrong people.

As always, if you need help defining your ideal customer or other marketing needs, just let me know by dropping an email to SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S.  Heather Tapia’s Abundance Marketing Pro series continues tonight (Monday, May 3) at 6:30 p.m. at Raisin Rack in Westerville. Tonight’s topic:  Creating a Plan of Action.  Should be great.  Check it out.

P.S.S.  Most of you have heard, but just in case you haven’t — I’m now the Columbus Business Events Examiner for Examiner.com.  Send me your press releases and event announcements and I’ll do what I can to get your events promoted and reviewed.  Also looking for event-support types of news, like venues, caterers, DJs, event planners.  It’s gonna be fun!

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The Internet can be a big, intimidating place for anyone thinking of starting a new online business.  Much like the hungry person facing        the all-you-can-eat buffet, a small business owner goes online, sees so many programs and webinars and systems, each one shouting Buy Me!  Buy Me! that he can’t help but sample this and that.

But eventually, our new online business owners doesn’t feel so good.  His credit cards balances are bloated and credit limits are maxed.  He’s committed to several hundred dollars a month in website hosting , autoresponders, co-op advertising plans, and other various programs and systems.  He has 100 emails a day flooding his four email accounts, each one touting another sure-fire marketing program to buy.   He signed up for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Tagged, Friendster, and four other social networking programs.  He starts to spend time, not on building a business, but reading and deleting emails and tweets, writing on walls, bouncing around the internet to see if that NEW marketing system fills in a blank in his business plan he didn’t even know was there.  After two months, he becomes so discouraged by his lack of progress and overwhelmed by the sheer effort of just trying to keep up, he quits.

It’s okay.  Most of us have been there.  You are not a failure as an online business owner, you are human.  But you are also proof that online marketing works.

While there is no one solution that is perfect for everyone, here are four easy steps that should take you from overwhelmed newbie to money-making pro in record time.

1)  Make a Business and Marketing Plan and Stick to It

Finding your way through the myriad of opportunities online can be a daunting task.   And having the perseverance to work through the chosen program until you succeed is the difference between business success and failure.

Write out a game plan before you even buy your first domain name.  Do your due diligence.  Check out. your online competition.  Do an online search and see if the marketing program or online income system is getting good reviews in forums, on Squidoo, HubPages, in articles, and on blogs.  You have to read every review with a grain of salt, of course, but in my experience, I have not found a single program that didn’t have both pros and cons discussed somewhere.

Your first decision needs to be what kind of online business you want for yourself.  Some of your choices are:

1)  Promoting other people’s digital products as an affiliate

2)  Recruiting other marketers in a Multi-Level Marketing program

3)  Promoting your own products on your own websites

4)  Purchasing other people’s products to re-sell on your own websites or Ebay-type sites

Any of these business strategies can be successful.  There are people making hundreds of thousands of dollars each year doing each of these strategies.  But you can’t do them all at once.  It will make you crazy, unfocused, and ultimately, unsuccessful.  The marketing strategies that make digital-product affiliates successful are not exactly identical to the online marketing that works for Ebay.  There are similar concepts, but the devil is in the details.  Pick one type of online business and commit to it.  The other types of programs will still be out there after you’ve mastered your first choice.  The beauty of the Internet is that there are no limits.  Conversely, the problem with the Internet is there are no limits.  Give yourself the best shot at success.  Pick one online business, make a plan, and then work the plan until you succeed.

2)  Learn All You Can

Becoming a successful online business does not happen overnight.  Do not believe any program that says it’s easy.  If it says you are going to plug-in this program and viola’ you’ll make $30,000 in the next 3 months, it’s most probably a scam.  Could it happen?  Sure.  Will it happen for you if you are a complete newbie?  No.

3)  Set an Initial Budget and Stick to It

It’s so tempting.  Every program on the internet sounds like a winner.  It’s just another $197, and look, I’ll get $5,000 is free software that will let me beat Google Adsense at its own game.  Really.  Before you buy that first program, set a budget.  Do not spend a dime over that initial set budget UNTIL you have made your first sale.  This is a cardinal rule, and you shall not break it.  It doesn’t matter how tempting the offer sounds, if you have to spend more than you have budgeted, you can’t buy it.  Period.  There are tons of ways to promote products and services online for free or at little cost.  But even at a little cost, it can add up quickly.  The free methods take a little more time and effort to see results, but it’s worth it.

4)  Take Advantage of Any and All Support Offered

The most successful online business owners are the ones who reach out and take advantage of any and all help.  They participate in forums, they read blogs, they continually read and learn.  Take advantage of coaching programs if it’s within your budget.  If it’s not in your budget, use the free resources until you have made enough money to afford coaching.  The answers and solutions are out there.  You can find it if you look.

Building an online business takes time and effort, but for many, the rewards can be enormous.  Just stay focused and don’t give up.

If I can help you develop your online business plan, or create your online marketing strategy, please let me know.  Helping small businesses succeed is what I do.

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