Steinar Knutsen» strategy

First Impressions of Apple iBooks Author

Steinar — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:16:29 +0000

Apple launched iBooks Author this week and it’s pretty amazing. Basically, it’s free software that allows you to create media-rich, interactive ebooks. It’s available for download on the Mac App Store.

Typically, this has been a pretty difficult task, but iBooks Author is so simple because it plays nice with Pages, Keynote and several other forms of media available on your Mac.

I spent a couple hours working in iBook Author and after importing some existing content from Pages, I had an ebook ready to publish rather easily and quickly.

What do you think about iBooks Author? Let me know when your book is online!

GoToWebinar: #12 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:50:48 +0000

What is GoToWebinar?

Reach your target audience quickly and affordably. Use the GoToWebinar self-service interface to plan, present, record and analyze unlimited Webinars with up to 1,000 attendees each – all for one flat fee. Create and host your own professional Webinars from day one – no experience required

Reach hundreds of people – right from your PC or Mac®
Save with built-in VoIP and phone conferencing at no extra charge
Includes GoToMeeting® for smaller meetings

Key Features

Download an audience list ranked by interest level to focus follow-up efforts on your hottest prospects, lowering your overall cost per lead.
Present online to anyone, anywhere, reducing your costs by decreasing travel and customer acquisition expenses.
GoToWebinar flat fee pricing structure lets you conduct unlimited Webinars without raising your costs – achieving faster and higher ROI.

Try it FREE for 30 Days!

Why do I need GoToWebinar?

GoToWebinar® features make it simple for you to set up, conduct and analyze Webinars yourself – no need to pay for additional event-management services. Increase your audience size while reducing your overall presentation costs with easy-to-use GoToWebinar. Make presentations in real time to hundreds of customers, prospects and employees — wherever they are. Plus, GoToWebinar comes with GoToMeeting, for smaller, more collaborative online meetings.

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

Grasshopper: #11 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:34:55 +0000

What is Grasshopper?

The Grasshopper virtual phone system helps entrepreneurs sound more professional and stay connected from anywhere. Features include toll free and local numbers, custom greetings, multiple extensions for employees, call forwarding to any phone anywhere in the world, voicemail to email and more!

Get a Toll Free or Local Number With Multiple Extensions – Add department & employee extensions easily.
Get Voicemails and Faxes via Email – No more calling in to check messages. Just open the attachment.
Know Who’s Calling Before Accepting the Call – Hear the caller’s phone number or name, the choice is yours.
Read Voicemails – A transcription of voicemail is included with emails.

Key Features

Toll free or local number – local or national presence
Unlimited extensions – for departments & employees
Call forwarding - work from anywhere
Voicemails via email – play online or on cell phone
Manage online or by phone – no hardware to purchase
No Long Term Contracts

Get Started Today!

Why do I need Grasshopper?Unlike a traditional phone system, Grasshopper is managed all online and in the cloud – there’s no hardware to purchase and no software to install. It’s really so easy to setup a new phone number or extension and expand your company’s footprint. Plus, since it’s month-to-month with no long term contracts, it’s also a popular solution for short-term marketing campaigns or temporary contact requirements.

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

2011 YouTube Video Traffic Review

Steinar — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:13:45 +0000

As many of your know I like to shoot a lot of video. In fact, I published 61 videos on Youtube in 2011 – you can see them here on my YouTube channel. I have several other YouTube channels too, but I’m not going to refer to those in this post.

I like video as a communications channel for several reasons:

sometimes it’s better to illustrate a point show & tell style
shooting video or screencasts are so easy it’s almost irresistible for me
search engines love video (Google owns YouTube)
video keeps the reader’s attention longer than text
video is mobile friendly

Of course, if you’re not comfortable putting your face in front of the camera, the prospect of doing video isn’t really going to sounds very apealling. It won’t be terribly fun and your viewers will probably sense your lack of confidence or enthusiasm.

A good remedy is to record a quick video every day for 30 days and keep them private – this helps you find your voice, learn the tools & process and gain some confidence. Also, spend some time on YouTube watching others. Explore their styles and consider what might work best for you.

My video stats from 2011

Here’s a snapshot of my YouTube channel performance in 2011. Overall, I’m pretty pleased, but there are areas for improvement.

Performance – # of views at 33,441 is OK. This represents a 10% increase over last year and really could have been a lot higher. My most popular videos had to do with iPads and Podcasting, so those seem like a popular subjects to build on. I’m in the process of building a podcasting app and service for podcasting on the iPad so this is a no brainer.

I’m pretty happy to see 57 new subscribers; this gives me some sense of value. Unfortunately, it’s less than the net number of new subscribers in 2010 of 90, but I think I know the answer.

You see, in 2010 I did a series of videos on podcasting from your Mac using Screenflow. I worked really hard on them and people took note. I’ve gotten tons of comments and the reaction has been nothing but positive.

In 2011, I published a similar series on Facebook Pages for Business, but recorded the videos with Screenr in more of a rapid fire mode. Because Screenr videos are limited to 5 minutes and do not provide any editing capabilities they weren’t nearly as impressive as the 10 minute, finely tuned videos from 2010. Don’t get me wrong – the content was great, but the presentation was not as memorable and thus fewer people subscribed to my Channel.

YouTube Activity Impact on Website Traffic

I often preach that video is critical to driving traffic an retaining visitors once they reach your site. Let’s take a look at how this unfolded in 2011.

This first snapshot shows that I received 311 visits, with 1.95 pages per visit, average time of 1:50 and bounce rate of 63.3%. All of these metrics perform better than my entire site on average.

I also see 75% new visits, which is 12% less than my site on average, but this is OK because it tells me that I have loyal viewers on YouTube.

Key Takeaways for 2012

I’m going to keep publishing video in 2012. It drives great traffic and pages on my site that have videos embedded have better visitor stats than average. I also really enjoy producing and publishing video and feel like it’s going to continue to develop as the preferred media for online communication.

This year, I’m also going to use Screenflow more strategically as my main video production tool. The quality of output is just so much better than any other screen capture process I’ve used. Sure, it takes a bit longer to use Screenflow vs Screenr, Jing or Quicktime, but it’s time well spent.

How’s video working for you and your business? Do you get much traffic from YouTube? What are you doing to leverage video in 2012?

OptimizePress: #10 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:44:13 +0000

What is OptimizePress?

Many of the world’s top Internet Marketers, Experts, Speakers and Coaches use OptimizePress to build their sales pages, launch funnels, membership sites or squeeze pages. It’s simply the easiest way to create an online sales funnel fast. It’s packed with customization options and built-in graphics that would take hours or days to replicate.

OptimizePress Theme – Utilize the power of this theme on as many of your OWN domains as you want, and start creating amazing pages in minutes!
Complete Page Building Solution – Now you no longer need to mess around with HTML, CSS, just use OptimizePress to build all your sales pages, squeeze pages, launch pages, bonus pages and more …
Unique Shortcode Sales Letter Building System – No longer do you have to worry about paying designers to clean up your sales letters – simply use our own super-powerful shortcode system to add in all the elements you want on your pages, just point and click!

Key Features

Build High Converting Squeeze Pages with over 10 tested and proven designs for your squeeze pages or landing pages to increase your optin rate and build your list fast
Create Powerful Product Launches with a custom launch sequence inside OptimizePress and use our advanced features to increase your visitor response.
Build Sales Letters, Bonus Pages, One-Time Offer Pages based on proven & tested designs, so you can give your pages a boost before you even start writing your sales copy!

Get Started Today!

Why do I need OptimizePress?

OptimizePress has been designed to make everything super easy. This includes integrating with your chosen autoresponder, which can usually be a real pain. Simply copy and paste the main form code your autoresponder provider gives you into OptimizePress, and our system will do the rest, including integrating the form with our custom styled input boxes and your optin button!

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

LinkedIn is Top Social Media Channel for B2B Marketers

Steinar — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:27:30 +0000

LinkedIn is the smallest and oldest of the big 5 social media platforms, yet is surprisingly the preferred social media marketing channel among B2B marketers according to a recent study by Safefrog Marketing Greoup.

Survey respondents often cite LinkedIn as the top social media site for B2B marketers, but others put Facebook and Twitter above the business-minded social network. According to Sagefrog Marketing Group, in summer 2011, 58% of US B2B marketers that used social media used LinkedIn, compared to 50% for Facebook and 43% for Twitter.

via More B2B Marketers Embrace Social Media Efforts – eMarketer

LinkedIn is great for B2B Marketers for several reasons:

1) LinkedIn is based on your profession, business resume, so folks on LinkedIn are is a business frame of mind. Facebook and Twitter, on the other hand, are more personal in nature.

2) LinkedIn puts business in the forefront with robust business profile pages. Businesses can upload their logo and fill out a robust description of their product or service. Employees can link their individual LinkedIn profiles to the corporate profile, providing a great system to network B2B relationships.

3) LinkedIn Groups offer a great environment to share ideas and resources among your peers, customers, prospects and other parties that either currently do business with you or would like to engage in some level of business related discussion.

This is just three reasons, but the list goes on. Are you using LinkedIn as a marketing channel for your business? What’s working for you?

DropBox: #9 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 16:22:13 +0000

What is Dropbox?

Dropbox allows you to easily store and share files online in either a private or public setting. Dropbox works hard to make sure that all your files are the same no matter where you’re working from. This means that you can start working on a computer at school or the office, and finish from your home computer.

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere.
Invite your friends, family and teammates to any folder in your Dropbox, and it’ll be as if you saved that folder straight to their computers.
Dropbox is like a time machine that lets you undo mistakes and even undelete files you accidentally trash!

Key Features

2GB of Dropbox for free, with subscriptions up to 100GB available.
Your files are always available from the secure Dropbox website.
Dropbox works with Windows, Max, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android and Blackberry.
Works even when offline. You always have your files, whether or not you have a connection.
Send people links to specific files in your Dropbox rather than emailing huge files back and forth.

Get Started Today!

Why do I need Dropbox?

People around the world rely on Dropbox to help them design buildings, compose music, run businesses, write books and even coordinate disaster relief. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a teacher, a photographer or an astronomer, an artist or an activist, Dropbox simplifies your life. Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others, whether you’re a student or professional, parent or grandparent. Even if you accidentally spill a latte on your laptop, have no fear! You can relax knowing that Dropbox always has you covered, and none of your stuff will ever be lost.

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

Commenting on Blogs for Knowledge, Brand Building and Market Leadership

Steinar — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:54:22 +0000

Commenting on other blogs is a fantastic strategy for building your brand online. So few people leave comments these days that you can easily differentiate yourself with this simple tactic. Not only does commenting get your name out there, it also gives you a chance to learn something new and connect with other thought leaders within your industry.

In my daily routine, I scan all of the blogs that I subscribe to in Google Reader. My goal is to choose three blog posts that I find interesting and leave my comment. I find that this gives me exposure to readers on that website, and often drives traffic back my website.

Do you comment on blogs on a regular basis? I’d love to hear your feedback.

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MindNode: #8 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:45:37 +0000

What is MindNode?

MindNode Pro and MindNode are elegant and simple-to-use mind mapping applications for the Macintosh that help to 1) visually collect, classify and structure ideas and 2) organize, study and solve problems.

Available for Mac, iPad, & iPhone
Visually Appealing Mind Maps. There is no need to spend hours playing with the visual attributes to create an appealing mind map. The default values are suitable for most uses.

Key Features

Constrain node width and resize nodes. Automatically constrain the width of a node and to resize the node directly on the canvas.
Node Well. New nodes are created by simply dragging them out of the node wells. There is no need to access the toolbar or the application menu.
Multiple Mind Maps. The ability to create multiple mind maps on one canvas makes MindNode Pro an ideal tool for brainstorming sessions.

Why do I need MinNode?

Get Started Today!

Mind maps can be used for many different tasks – including to-do lists, brainstorming, holiday planning, research, writing, project management – and in many different environments – school, meetings, workspace. Personally, I like to use mind maps to outline blog posts and podcast episodes among other tasks. MindNode Pro includes the same features as the free MindNode version, and adds several new features that help improve your productivity.

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

Skitch Image Capture: #7 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:25:33 +0000

What is Skitch?

Skitch is Mac desktop and Android mobile image editing tool that lets you grab, annotate, edit and share your screenshots and images fast. Skitch revolutionizes basic image editing tasks, delivering a quick and easy tool that offers most image editing features you’ll use day to day.

Screenshots are easy: Skitch makes grabbing a screenshot a mouse click or keyboard command away. Crosshairs Snap, Fullscreen Snap or a Frame Snap made easy
Image indexing: every image you edit in Skitch is saved within the program so you can easily browse through anything you’ve previously created.
Upload to your own site: using Skitch, you can also directly upload any picture to any web server via FTP.

Key Features

Image resizing: Open an image or drag one directly into Skitch.
Image cropping: drag any point of the image in the direction you want for a quick crop.
Text or drawings: type, use your mouse or even a graphics tablet to quickly add anything to an image.
Webcam shot: if you’ve got a webcam, you can use Skitch to take shots with it.
Share on Twitter: any image hosted on Skitch is a shortcut away from a Twitter post.

Get Started Today!

Why do I need Skitch?
Besides being completely free, it’s the range of features Skitch offers quickly and simply. It’s not a Photoshop replacement (I still use Photoshop on occasion) nor does it pretend to be. What Skitch offers is 95% of every image editing function I use on a daily basis without the bloat of Photoshop so image handling is that much quicker.

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

Catalyst Theme for WordPress: #6 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:00:52 +0000

What is the Catalyst Theme?

Catalyst isn’t your typical WordPress Theme. It’s not just a cookie-cutter template to slap on the face of your site. Catalyst is more of a design platform. It gives you the flexibility to create a site that’s unique. With over 800 custom options at your fingertips, what you can create with Catalyst is only limited by imagination.

Search Engine Optimization – Catalyst is built from the ground up with SEO in mind, so that your site has a fighting chance to rank among competing sites on search engines.
Ideal for Developers & Non-Developers – A beautiful user dashboard makes Catalyst stand out from the crowd with over 800 custom options. Great for both the seasoned WordPress developer and novice alike.
Unlimited Custom Layouts – Unlike the majority of WordPress Themes and Frameworks, Catalyst has unlimited custom layout development capabilities.

Key Features

Unlimited Custom Layouts, Widgets & Hook Boxes Provide Amazing Flexibility
The Dynamik Child Theme Provides Over 800 No-Coding Design Options
Create Your Own Custom Child Themes With A Single Mouse Click
A Custom CSS Building Tool That Writes Custom Code For You!
The Most Comprehensive Font Control Offered In A WordPress Theme!

Get Started Today!

Why do I need the Catalyst theme?
Catalyst makes WordPress website design easy! No need to purchase a new theme every time you want to change the look and feel of your site – just create a new child theme in Catalyst and let your imagination go wild!

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

WishList Member: #5 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:35:28 +0000

What is Wishlist Member?
Trusted by over 31,102 online communities and membership sites worldwide, WishList Member is a powerful, yet easy to use membership solution that can turn any WordPress blog into a full-blown membership site.

Integrates With Your WordPress Site – Whether you’re building a new site or integrating with an existing WordPress site, installing WishList Member is a breeze.
Multi-Level Access – Give your members access to multiple levels within your membership. For example, create a central download location with access granted to members of all levels.
Control Viewed Content – Just click the “Hide” button to protect exclusive content for members of a particular level. Create “modular” memberships and hide content from other levels.

Key Features

Just unzip and upload the plugin, and within minutes you’ll have your own membership site up and running.
Unlimited Membership Levels
Protected, members-only content, integrated payments, member management, and so much more!
Seamlessly integrates with the most popular shopping cart systems.
Graduate your members from one level to the next for sequential content delivery

Get Started Today!

Why do I need Wishlist Member?
WishList Member makes the process of building a membership site as easy as possible, so you can start creating a powerful online community of your own right away. No other system makes it so simple to sign up new members and deliver content behind a series of flexible membership levels. Charge for access if you wish or create an open membership. It’s up to you and WishList Member makes it easy!

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

Hootsuite: #4 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:41:51 +0000

What is Hootsuite?

Hootsuite is the leading social media dashboard to manage and measure your social networks. Hootsuite is an online application – no software to install!

Save your time and your sanity. Monitor and post to multiple social networks, including Facebook and Twitter using the HootSuite dashboard.
Show off your social media success. Create custom reports from over 30 individual report modules to share with clients and colleagues. Track brand sentiment, follower growth, plus incorporate Facebook Insights and Google analytics all without leaving the dashboard.
HootSuite’s Pro and Enterprise plans allow you to have multiple contributors to your social profiles without sharing passwords. Assign messages for follow-up and track responses.

Key Features

Manage multiple social profiles
Schedule messages and tweets
Track brand mentions
Analyze social media traffic
Mobile apps for those on the go
Direct feed from you blog to Twitter
Upload images and links
Popular browser extensions

Why do I need Hootsuite?
HootSuite helps organizations use the social web to launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audience, and distribute targeted messages across multiple channels.

Using HootSuite’s unique social media dashboard, teams can collaboratively schedule updates to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, WordPress and other social networks via web, desktop or mobile platforms plus track campaign results and industry trends to rapidly adjust tactics.

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

Bluehost: #3 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:28:59 +0000

What is Bluehost?

From the business owner to the individual who desires full functionality on a small budget, Bluehost provides your complete web hosting solution.

BlueHost has WordPress hosting built in. Their one-click installs with SimpleScripts make it super fast to spin up test sites or new blogs quickly.
Bluehost has been providing quality web hosting solutions since 1996 and provides a consistent experience for your website without all the ups and downs normally associated with every other shared hosting provider.
$6.95/month is a killer deal. Sure you can save a couple of bucks if you hunt around, but is it worth it? Trust me, I’ve tried and it’s NOT.

Key Features

UNLIMITED Disk Storage
UNLIMITED Domain Hosting
Free Domain Name
Secure Email Support
UNLIMITED GB of Site Transfer
Add-on Domains, Subdomains and Parked Domains
cPanel Account Control Panel
FTP Access
Web File Manager
Secure Shell (SSH) Access
Spam Assasin Protection
MySQL Databases
PHP 5 and more!

Reserve your domain!

Why do I need Bluehost?
Bluehost technology is really what sets them apart from other companies. They have their own datacenter, their build their own servers, they have their own nationwide fiber network, they build their own custom linux kernel. In short, because they handle every aspect of your hosting you can feel confident that if there is a problem that you won’t have to deal with 5 different companies to get your problem solved.

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

Aweber: #2 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:13:28 +0000

Aweber is my #2 essential online marketing tool for 2012. I’ve been using this service since 2007 and absolutely love it to this day.

What is Aweber?

Aweber offers industry leading, affordable opt-in email marketing that enables you to boost your website’s traffic and convert more sales.

Industry-Leading Deliverability: Get your emails to the inbox, not junk folders, with deliverability rates exceeding 99 percent.
Email Newsletters and Autoresponders: You set the date and time you want your newsletter to be sent, and they’ll get it delivered. Autoresponders will be automatically delivered at the intervals you specify.
Analytics: Find out who is (and isn’t) opening, clicking, downloading and buying from your emails. You can use this information to improve future sends, create new targeted groups of subscribers and find ways to improve your results.

Key Features

Collect, manage and segment your subscribers across multiple lists.
Use email autoresponders to deliver a sequence of messages automatically.
Over 150 ready-to-use, customizable HTML email templates and forms
12+ years experience delivering email marketing campaigns help you reach the inbox.
RSS to email tool turns your latest blog post in an email newsletter.

Why do I need Aweber?
For the highest ROI, AWeber provides the tools to create, manage, analyze and optimize your email marketing. If you don’t have a full team of copywriters, designers and developers, AWeber makes it easy to do it yourself. We also make it easy for agencies and freelancers to use our service, so whichever route you take, you’re covered.

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

Market Samurai: #1 Essential Online Marketing Tool for 2012

Steinar — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:08:20 +0000

What is Market Samurai?

Market Samurai is software for your Mac or PC that streamlines all critical search engine marketing tasks, puts complete market intelligence at your finger-tips, takes away uncertainty, and gives you focus, direction and confidence in your internet marketing.

It slashes time wasted on tasks that don’t directly create results – allowing you to put your focus into the areas where you will receive the best returns for your unique online business;
It tells you exactly what you need to do next – by using decision-making data that is specific to your unique market – meaning you don’t get lost, confused or sidetracked – and every ounce of energy is effective;
AND it helps you complete critical internet marketing tasks faster, more easily and, efficiently, and achieve better results than ever before

Key Features

Find out how to uncover “gold-nugget” keywords – each of these keywords can send hundreds, even thousands of free visitors to your site each day.
Stop attracting time-wasting tire-kickers to your web-site, and target the keywords in your market that real buyers are using right now.
Discover exactly how to beat the competition, and get front-page rankings in Google for high-traffic keywords in weeks or days – not months or years.

Download Your Free Copy!

Why do I need Market Samurai?
Every web-site needs traffic if it’s going to succeed – and the most reliable, consistent, profitable, high-volume source of traffic comes from search engines. All it takes is getting 4 SIMPLE things right! – the 4 Golden Rules … but 99% of sites get these 4 things wrong (without even realizing it at the time). As a result, the odds of success are stacked against them, making good profits (not even big profits) becomes a massive struggle and, as a result, 99% of sites fail!

Download the complete list of 12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012!

12 Essential Online Marketing Tools for 2012

Steinar — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:04:01 +0000

The list of products and services chosen for this year’s list are products that I use on a regular basis. Some of them are free and others are paid services. In my experience, the combination of these products provides a platform to execute online marketing campaigns more efficiently & effectively.

… thus, I am sharing them with you!

Listen or Download

This year’s list covers a broad range of leading products and services, including keyword research, email newsletter management, file storage, website hosting, contact management, image capture, video capture, mind mapping, social media, WordPress custom themes, online lead generation, membership site management and webinar hosting.

After 15 years of marketing online, it is clear to me that there is more than one way to get things accomplished. In the early days, I relied heavily on free tools and my own programming & marketing skills to make things happen. In almost every case, there is an alternative route, tool, application or service that is equally capable of getting the job done. Trust me, I’ve tried a lot of tools over the years!

How to get started with affiliate marketing for passive income

Steinar — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:17:17 +0000

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make passive income online. Essentially this is the process of selling other company’s products for a commission on the sale. For example, you might sell a $50 product and get 6% or $3.00. With a good amount of traffic though your affiliate link, this could multiply into a decent amount of income.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online. Today we’ll discuss Linkshare and how you can get started.

Listen or Download

I started exploring affiliate marketing in 2005 after blogging about the Olympics since 2001. I had a steading flow of traffic to my sites and wanted to monetize them somehow. I tried Adsense but that didn’t seem too promising.

I did some research and discovered a few leading affiliate programs: Linkshare, ShareaSale and Commission Junction. These sites basically serve as the middleman between you and the merchant.

Basic Steps to Get Started with an Affiliate Marketing Site

Before you get started with affiliate marketing, you need a website. The fastest way to do this is get hosting at Bluehost and do an auto install of WordPress. There are tons of great free themes or for a more sophisticated set of customization options check out the Catalyst WordPress Theme.
Once your’ve registered your website, visit the affiliate program sites (Linkshare, etc) and sign up for an account. There you’ll find dozens of categories and 1,000 of merchants with millions of products you can promote on your website. It’s easy to search and find the right products that match your niche.
Once you find a a few good merchants, apply to become an affiliate for their program. Some programs will approve your application immediately, while it may take a day or two for others to let you in or reject you based on a number of potential reasons.
Upon approval, you’ll have access to a plethora of links for each merchant. You’ll see text links, banner links, individual product links and some customizable links. Most affiliate programs also have a feed that you can subscribe to or download so that you no longer have to manually login to see what’s new. It’s really pretty amazing how quickly you can start grabbing HTML code for these links and build out your new website.
Put the links on your site and once someone purchases something a record of the transaction will appear in your affiliate program account. Depending on the program you’ve chosen, you can expect to get a check for your commissions within 30-60 after your total reaches a set minimum. Payouts usually come in the form of check, direct deposit or PayPal.

Have you tried affiliate marketing? What’s worked for you?

3 SEO Strategies You Can Execute Right Now

Steinar — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:09:25 +0000

Search engine optimization is something that all bloggers and online marketers address at some point. The goal is to drive more targeted to your site, but it seems as though the rules keep changing. Let’s explore at least three SEO strategies you can execute right now.

Listen or Download

1) Join Google Plus

Social media is obviously playing an increasingly important role in how people find information online and connect with brands in a meaningful way. Search engines recognize this and have, therefore, changed their algorithms to put social media in the spotlight.

The most recent evidence of this is the launch of Google Plus, an 80 million member strong social media platform run by Google. In the past it was common to find Facebook and Twitter content in Google search results, but in 2011 Google scrapped those relationships and now shows Google Plus content instead.

To take advantage of this I encourage you to set up a Google Plus account. Complete your profile as well as possible including information about you, locations you’ve lived, where you work, what you do, links to other online profiles & websites and your profile picture. Add a few new posts, including one to your website. Upload a few images and videos if you can. You want to send a signal to Google that your onboard and ready to participate.

Of course, the real power of Google Plus is the community, so start adding people to Circles. Comment on their posts, +1 their content and share their posts to your Circles. Mention them in you posts too. If you have a business, setup a Google Plus Page and repeat the steps above.

This entire process should take no more than about an hour and will establish a great baseline for you and your new relationship with Google. The key is to get your profile setup now, so that your “start date” is locked in. Google tends to place importance on the age of domains and other online assets, so consider this your first warning to get things rolling early.

2) Write Great Content

Writing unique content on your blog has and always will be a valuable method for driving search engine traffic to your site. Blogging on a regular basis sends a signal to Google that your website is relevant, among other things.

Personally, I like blogging because it forces me to really dive into important issues within my industry and provide additional clarity to my customers so they can make sense of what’s happening online. The more I blog about current events and trends within my industry, the more traffic I get from visitors looking for help on those topics. The same is true in any niche, so think about your market and what’s happening today. Pick a specific topic and write a couple blog posts that provide guidance for those looking for help.

If your nervous about blogging or have trouble getting started, I recommend that you just start writing without editing at first. You don’t want editing to get in the way of your stream of thought. Rather, get the ideas down on paper, and then go back later and edit for proper grammar and markup such as bold and italicizing. For example, I write this blog post using Siri – a voice to text dictation application on the iPhone. It took me just a few minutes to talk and the results was nearly 1000 words.

With every blog post that you write I also recommend you include categories and relevant tags. In WordPress, for example, you can choose these options when publishing each blog post. This creates additional pages within your site that Google can index and also provides helpful navigation for your users to discover content across your site.

When you finally publish your blog pos, share the link to your content on popular social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Plus. Soon, you’ll see traffic coming to your site that may otherwise have gone to the competition. Of course, use Google Analytics to see exactly how these people are finding your site and what keywords they used when they searched on search engines.

3) Comment on other Blogs

I’ve written about commenting on other blogs previously so I won’t get into too much detail here, but this remains a very powerful method for driving traffic to your website.

When you comment on other blogs or websites there are a few things that happen.

First, it forces you to really read the article, form your own opinion about the subject and then add value to the conversation.
The second thing that happens is that people that read that article will see your comment and your name. If you comment often, they will identify you as a thought leader within your niche. Furthermore, if you leave good comments, readers will click through to visit your website and learn more about you.
In some cases, search engines will also be indexing your comments – buildings backlinks that drive search engine optimization for your site over the long-run.

I hope you find these three strategies helpful. Obviously, as the search engines continues to evolve and new online platforms appear these strategies will change over time.

What is your favorite strategy for driving traffic to your website?

New Visitors Start Here

Steinar — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:11:47 +0000

Hello and welcome to the Online Marketing Studio blog. My name is Steinar Knutsen and I am a full-time Internet Marketing & Technology Consultant. I’ve been blogging since 2001 and use this blog as a platform to test new ideas and share with you what works.

If this is your first time to my blog, you will want to read this page carefully as it will help you to learn about Internet Marketing in a way that makes it much easier to comprehend – plus it will help you to understand which parts of my site to check out first so that your time is best put to use.

First a little background: For new people new to Internet Marketing, the reason our business can be extremely overwhelming is because of:

The broad range of strategies available to position your business online.
The sheer number of tactics needed to successful execute a given online marketing strategy.
The overwhelming nature of managing multiple social media profiles and communities.
The complete lack of any comprehensive set of industry standards for training.

Who is the Online Marketing Studio blog for?

This blog is for business owners and marketing managers faced with the task of creating an online presence for your company. Maybe you’ve read something in the news about the popularity of blogging and social media, but have found it frustrating to nail down specifically what to do next, how it all ties together and what works best.

My blog will show you specifically how to:

Research and find profitable keywords (this is by far the single largest cause of failure for most online marketers)
Build websites and landing pages the correct way
Get your site ranked in the Search Engines
Convert visitors, Generate Leads and Increase your Return on Investment

What you can expect from me:

I tell it like it is. I have nothing to hide and I have no problem sharing my best strategies and tactics. Online marketing is a fast paced industry so it’s my job to stay on top of the latest developments.
I’m always online so if you leave a comment or reach out to me on Twitter, you can be fairly confident that I’ll reply within minutes.
I like to try new things and share my experience along the way. I take the risk and you benefit.
I like to mix up my content with text, audio and video. I think you’ll find it more interesting and quite frankly I find it’s a lot more fun.

Here are Some “Must Read” Posts to Get You Started

How to Contact Me

Definitions and Terminology

Blog – Originally call a weblog, a blog is a form of website that allows you to update content on a regular basis, much like you would a daily diary. Most blog platforms, such as Blogger, WordPress and Posterous are free and provide a user friendly interface to update content online without any additional software to install or knowledge of HTML. Blogging is a great way to keep your site fresh, inform visitors of new information and signal to search engines that your site is current and relevant.

WordPress – This blogging platform has evolved into one of the most popular content management systems. WordPress.com is an online free version where anyone can setup a free account and start blogging within a few minutes. WordPress.org provides a version of WordPress that you can download and install on your own server. In both cases, WordPress offers a simple admin interface, a great collection of free themes and a robust set of plugins to add functionality to your new site. For a more custom site, you can also purchase flexible WordPress theme frameworks that take WordPress to a whole new level.

Content Management System – In the old days, a website consisted of static content in HTML. Today’s modern platform consists of PHP based, dynamically generated pages that speak to a database on content. A content management system, such as WordPress, connects the PHP, CSS and database together to present your website to visitors. It makes it easy for you to add new content and edit content over time, rather than messing with HTML pages. Moreover, a content management system provides the tools to better organize your content and run sophisticated code and queries to manipulate your content.

Niche Website – Just like your business operates within a specific target market, a niche website is designed to laser focus in on one specific topic and target a particular set of visitors. For example, a general website might be about “tires”, whereas a niche site is about “Italian race car tires”. Niche sites are useful as landing pages for paid advertising campaigns or in markets that have a large variety of products and services and it’s important to speak to a specific audience. The idea is that if you can speak more directly to your readers, your content has greater value and has potentially a better conversion rate.

Domain Name – This is your web address, such as www.steinarknutsen.com

Plugins – most content management systems and blogging platforms offer a series of plugins or widgets that add functionality to your blog. Typical plugins include a search form, recent posts, a list of posts and pages, a calendar and a open text box for you to add custom HTML or javascript. WordPress has 1,000′s of plugins, many of which you see on this very site in the sidebars and throughout the content. Without plugins, your blog would mostly consist of text and images with some basic navigation.

On-Page Optimization – This includes all the things you can do on your website to increase the likelihood that search engines will index your content and display your website in search engine results. This may include title tags, keyword tags, alt tags, description tags, header tags, content based keywords, internal links, page titles, keyword rich url’s and more.

Off-Page Optimization – This includes all the things you can do off your website to increase the likelihood that search engines will index your content and display your website in search engine results. This may include back links from other websites, submitting your sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools, sharing your RSS feed on other blog directories, submitting links to your content on link sharing sites like Reddit or StumbleUpon. This list goes on.

RSS – In layman’s terms, Really Simple Syndication is a standard format for sharing content online. Most blogs have an RSS feed built-in, e.g., http://www.steinarknutsen.com/feed. For publishers, RSS feeds help other online platforms and your readers, subscribe to your content using an RSS reader, such as Google Reader. RSS Feeds are important because they signal to these other platforms that you have published new content. If you have blog, your should submit your RSS feed to Google Webmaster Tools.

How to Find and Add Local Google Plus Users to your Circles and Grow your Social Network

Steinar — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:38:26 +0000

Searching for and adding local Google Plus users to your Circles can be a time consuming process, but I’ve come up with a solution to make it easier.

I’ll use my “Cville” circle for local Charlottesville Google Plus users as an example.

1. Share your local Google Plus Circle with your followers.

Go to Circles and click on the local Google Plus circle you want to share. Then click on “Share this Circle” in the upper right hand corner. Share it publicly or within a given circle of followers. Now everyone will be able to see your Circle and they may follow these people if they choose.

2. Publish a new Post on Google Plus asking your followers to share their local Circle.

Say something like this: “Please share your local Google Plus Circle with us. I would like to find new local people to follow and by sharing your Circle we can all get the most out of Google Plus on a local level. Go to Circle, click on the Circle you want to share and then click on ‘Share this Circle’”.

Hopefully, some people will now start to share their local Google Plus circles, like some of my friends, Jim Duncan, Daniel Rothamel, & Kari Rippetoe,

3. Add their Circle to your Circle or create a new one

When someone else shares their local Circle and you see it in a new Google Plus post, click on the “Add Circle” option in the middle of the image within their post. A popup will appear. If you want to create a new Circle from their Circle, spell out a unique name in the blank box and click “Create a new Circle”.

If you wan to add these people to an existing circle, spell out the same name of your exising Circle in the blank box and the option below will magically change to “Add to xyz Circle” (xyz meaning the name of the Google Circle you already have setup.)

Go through this process enough times and your Circles will grow pretty quickly.

Cool huh? Tell me how this goes.

Differentiate Yourself And Your Business For Online Market Leadership

Steinar — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 02:09:05 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about online market leadership lately and what businesses can do to differentiate themselves online. You see, it’s so crowded on Twitter and Facebook and blogs these days that it’s tough sometimes to stand out from the crowd.

How do I differentiate myself and my business?

Personally, it’s all about pushing the limits and adding real value on a regular basis for my clients and friends online. That means shooting video, podcasting, blogging and commenting on other popular blogs within my niche.

Commenting on other blogs is a great community building activity that has significantly decreased over the years. With the proliferation of Twitter and Facebook buttons, most people just share content rather than actually reading it and getting involved in the conversation. Their loss … my gain. You should do the same.

My challenge to you is to think about what you can do to differentiate your business from the pack. How can you add value? How can you stand apart as a trusted source?

I’d love to hear your ideas. Come up with something you can do this week, this month or next year. Your market is waiting for you to take charge.

Talk soon.

Worksheet: Define Your Target Market

Steinar — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 01:22:46 +0000

As a business owner or marketing manager, defining your target market is one of the first things we know we should do, but is often forgotten or remains stagnant over the years. The problem with this is that as your business grows and your customers change, you risk losing focus on those who need you most.

Once a year, usually in the Fall, I like to review my year-to-date performance and outline my strategy for the next year. Part of that process includes a look at my target market. It helps me gain clarity of who my audience is, whom I wish to reach and what my ideal customer looks like. It’s not easy and sometimes it can be a tough pill to swallow but it’s a critical step toward evolving your business.

I find it’s easier to start with customers’ needs first and then get into the demographics. It seems like if you start with demographics you fall into the trap that “everyone is my customer,” which we know is just not true. Starting with their needs will quickly weed out adjacent and other irrelevant segments that would most likely not be a very good fit for your business.

Here is a simple Target Market Worksheet to consider.

Download a PDF version of this Target Market Worksheet

What are my customers’ needs?
Who are my customers?
1. Age
2. Gender
3. Economic Level
4. Lifestyle
5. Buying Habits
Where are my customers located?
1. Where do they live?
2. Where do they shop?
Projected size of market?
How does my business meet their needs?
What is unique about my business?

Of course, you will want to customize this series of questions to meet your needs, including any industry specific criteria typically considered relevant to customer segmentation. That being said, don’t feel constrained to industry standard segmentation schemes. Ask your market what’s important to them and completely redefine your target market if needed. Get specific, find your niche and get excited about the idea of speaking to them in a more meaningful way.

What do you think? Is defining your target market a worthwhile exercise or just a waste of time?

Mind Map: Elements of a good blog post

Steinar — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:13:33 +0000

A little mind map brainstorming on my iPhone about elements of a good blog post. What would you change or add?

Social Media: You Can’t Be Everywhere, Nor Should You

Steinar — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 23:51:17 +0000

As marketers, many of us strive to “be everywhere” on the Internet. It seems like a reasonable goal given the capabilities of tools like TweetDeck, Ping.fm and others that allow us to continuously share information across multiple social media platforms at once.

Or maybe, you’re spending hours shooting video, blogging and podcasting because you almost feel obligated … only to find out your market is really getting trustworthy information from one of your competitors on some other industry-specific, niche social media site.

You can’t be everywhere, nor should you. Many entrepreneurs are excited about technology and they overextend themselves because they want to be part of the latest trend. The key is to only be where your customers, prospects and those who influence them engage.

via Brian Solis on Five Common Social Media Mistakes and How to Avoid Them | Blog | Daily Dose | Entrepreneur.com.

Personally, I do tend to be everywhere because I’m in the business of social media and online marketing. It’s my duty to have an in-depth understanding of an excessive number of platforms. It’s part of the value I bring to clients.

For most business owners and marketing managers, however, it may make more sense to focus on one or two networks.

I think the reason most entrepreneurs, and larger companies for that matter, fall into the trap of “be everywhere” is that they have yet to clearly define their niche target market. It’s almost easier to believe that “everyone is a potential customer” than focus on a specific segment.

Unfortunately, the process of marketing to everyone is actually more like marketing to no one. It’s very difficult to sell your product or service without specifically talking to a potential buyer’s wants and needs.

I recommend you get laser focussed on your niche and find the 1 or 2 of the most trusted social media platform for that audience. Then communicate directly to those people using words and information that let’s them know you’re speaking to them.

What do you think? Is being everywhere a reasonable strategy or does it make more sense to hand-pick online platforms for more effective, targeted communication?

7 Free Goal Setting Templates and Worksheets to Download

Steinar — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:18:33 +0000

If you’re looking for a great goal setting template or worksheet to download, you should find the following resources helpful. For me, goal setting is an important process to help clarify both short-term and long-term objectives. Without goals we can easily fall into reactionary mode, whereby we fail to evaluate opportunities relative to our overall desired course.

In my experience, writing down my goals often helps me achieve them faster and better than expected. It allows me to consistently focus on what’s most important for me and my business. This is not selfish – in fact, it’s better for your customers and those around you as well.

Here are some goal setting templates and worksheets you might find helpful:

1. Setting SMART Goals for your Marketing Strategy

Setting SMART goals is a proven approach to achieving success more quickly. As 2010 winds down, this is the perfect opportunity to examine your goals for 2011 and apply the SMART mnemonic or acronym to increase the likelihood your goals are met. Includes goal setting templates for Microsoft Excel and Apple Numbers.

2. Goal Setting Worksheet and Weekly Planner Template

This Goal Setting Worksheet will help you organize your goals, to dos, and/or projects to help you make the biggest impact in your life or career. This Weekly Planner Template (inspired from the teachings of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) will help you organize the most important things to do in each “role” you play in your life. Combined with the Goal Setting Worksheet, you can easily identify those things that will have the biggest impact.

3. Goal Setting Worksheet and Template

There are many free goal setting worksheets and templates available on the web. Even though there are slight variations in individual worksheets, they all serve the same purpose. Get this goal setting worksheet kit and take a step towards a clear sense of direction in your life.

4.Goal Setting Forms

If Goal Setting Forms is what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right spot. In all likely hood, you are one of the vast majority of people who never learned to either consciously or unconsciously set goals. Now you have come to understand that goal setting is central to success in any part of life and you want in on the action. Good news! We have provided some goal setting forms for you right here! How convenient! How useful.

5. Setting Goals

14 templates for how to set goals, goal worksheets, setting goals, goal lesson plans and more.

6. Free Goal Setting Templates

Studies have shown that people that write their goal along with a written action plan have a 51% chance to achieve it. Compared to those that do not write their goals, they have a 43% chance of achievement.

7. Printable SMART Goal Setting Templates

SMART goal setting templates, such as those below, remind of you of what you want, why you want it and how to get it. Print and use this free template to accelerate your progress towards what you want and waste less time on the way.

Which template(s) did you find most helpful?

30DTC – Why are WordPress Tags Important?

Steinar — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:11:35 +0000

WordPress tags can sometimes be a real mystery, but they are very important.

User Navigation

1. WordPress tags help your readers navigate your content.

I like to compare them to the Index in the back of a book. These are all the specific, individual words that you as a reader are seeking, that may not be as obvious in the Table of Contents (categories).

If readers find one post interesting, they’re likely to find other posts that share a similar tag interesting as well.

Search Engine Traffic

2. WordPress tags can drive significant traffic to your website. When you use a tag in a post, WordPress creates an addition page. For example, this post has the tag “wordpress tags”, so WordPress automatically creates a page for … WordPress Tags.

Since the new page has your exact keywords in the URL, search engines have a better chance of understanding what that new page is about. Thus, they get indexed well and drive traffic when people search for that phrase on Google, etc.

Here’s a great example.

I recently wrote a blog post about Google Plus Pages and used the tag “google-plus-multiple-admins” because I knew that the lack of multiple administrator support was an issue and people would be searching for some clarification.

As you can see from the chart below, this drove a handful of new visitors to my site over the past few days.

Yes, there was traffic to that post from other channels, but the tags did contribute in their own, unique way.

I hope this helps. Do you use tags? Why or why not?

30DTC – Driving Targeted Web Traffic with Long-Tail Keyword Research

Steinar — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 19:06:47 +0000

It’s day five of the 30 Day traffic challenge and a couple days ago I set out to optimize for the keyword phrase of targeted web traffic. I’m happy to report that some of the traffic to my website is indeed for this keyword search phrase.

This is not by accident. I used the phrase in a number of blog posts. I used it in some PDFs I uploaded to my website and to third-party websites and I used it been some comments that I left on some other blog posts.

I used it in a YouTube video and a couple quick podcast episodes at AudioBoo. At this point I hope you are thinking about some of the keyword phrases that you could be optimizing for on your website.

Search engine optimization is as much science as it is art. We don’t know the algorithms used by Google or Bing but simply guessing what the right keywords are is going to lead to failure and ultimately confuse the search engines.

On the flip side, if you use market research to understand the appropriate keywords you can drive targeted web traffic. I recommend Market Samurai as a great tool for understanding what the appropriate keywords are. In my case, I spend about 60 minutes to research some potentially promising keywords. I am by no means finished, but feel like I’m heading in the right direction.

What is your search engine optimization keyword research strategy?

Free Report – Build an Effective Online Distribution Strategy

Steinar — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:22:14 +0000

So much of what we do online these days is managing the flow of information.

We have tons of content coming at us everyday from social media, blogs, news, video and other online sources with little chance to filter the content let alone really consume everything in a meaningful way. On the flip side, some of us are in the business of publishing content and we sometimes question and even struggle to understand the best methods of distribution and consumption for our readers.

The attached report is my 2 cents on the subject of using RSS feeds as an effective means for managing the flow. I recommend setting up a blog as your central distribution center and using Google Reader as your gathering place and filter.

Enjoy!

Build an Effective Online Distribution Strategy

30DTC – Using Mind Maps to Brainstorm Ideas and Map Out a Plan of Attack

Steinar — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:13:33 +0000

It is day three of my 30 Day Traffic Challenge and today I am working on creating a mind map of all of the potential channels and opportunities to drive targeted web traffic to my website. I’m using a great tool on my iPad, iPhone and Mac called MindNode Pro, which is available at www.mindnode.com. Another great free mind mapping application I’ve used in the past is FreeMind.

Mind mapping is a great way to brainstorm ideas graphically rather than writing down your ideas in a list. In particular, they allow you to get ideas out onto the table in a free-form fashion and then re-order or categorize your ideas in a more meaningful way. With MindNode, I can export my map as an image, pdf or text based outline among other formats.

You can see from the initial mind map that I’ve created there are numerous ways to drive traffic to your website. I’ve categorized my mind map into strategies, tools, measurement, and search engine optimization, plus a special category around stuff beyond increasing traffic, such as conversion and monetization. This is by no means complete but it gives me a starting point with which to move forward implementing my traffic getting strategy.

Here’s the same mind map exported as an html file … pretty cool, huh?

Increase Web Traffic

Beyond Traffic

Long term strategy
Business objectives
Converting visitors
Monetization

Measuring Traffic

Google Analytics
Quantcast
Alexa
Compete

Strategies

On my site

Blogging

Keyword rich posts
Controversial content that challenges common belief
Covering current events
Top ten lists

Subscriptions

Blog feed subscriptions
Newsletters
Auto responder series

Creating a simple tool or widget as a downloadable

WordPress plugin
Ebook
Excel templates
Simple workbook with forms to complete

Multimedia formats

Podcasting
Images
Video

On other sites

Press Releases
Paid traffic

PPC
Advertising
Affiliate Marketing

Social media

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Participating in Forums
Commenting on blog posts

Offline promotion

Tools

Market Samurai
Blogging editorial calendar
Google Reader
Subscription Services

Aweber
Mailchimp
Constant Contact
IContact

Search engine optimization

Keyword research
On-page

Leveraging what I already see working with current visitors

Off-page

Inbound links

Once my mind map is fairly complete, I will prioritize the action items and fill out my blogging editorial calendar. It is much easier this way to stay on track and feel like I have a plan of attack moving forward.

Mind maps are also great for outlining a table of contents for an eBook, white paper, or any writing assignment in general.

Do you use mind maps? How? Why? What tools do you like?

30DTC – Using Market Samurai to Identify Keyword Phrases and Drive Targeted Web Traffic

Steinar — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:01:14 +0000

It’s still day two of my 30 Day Traffic Challenge and it’s time to use Market Samurai to do a little keyword research. The goal is to identify long tail keyword phrases and increase targeted web traffic to my site.

I used Market Samurai for about 30 minutes this afternoon to identify at least one promising keyword phrase: targeted web traffic. I’ll revisit Market Samurai again later to explore other keyword phrases but let’s take a look at the initial process of keyword analysis and selection.

In this screenshot you see my initial keyword search for the phrase “website traffic strategies”. I narrowed the initial related keyword phrase result set to exclude non-relevant word and longer phrases and then move forward with my analysis.

What I discovered, as shown in the next screenshot is that the phrase “website traffic strategies” has relatively low traffic. The results tell me that this phrase only gets 4 clicks per day for the website in the #1 position Google search result set. I’m looking for a keyword phrase that gets at least 80 clicks per day in the #1 position so this won’t do.

I notice, however, that “increase web traffic” gets 374 clicks per day and has a PBR (phrase-to-broad match) score of 24%. That means that 24% of the searches for that phrase are exactly “increase web traffic” and 374 clicks are made each day on Google in the first position for that phrase. That seems a bit more attractive, right?

Unfortunately, I see an SEOC score of 666,000 which means that over a half million other webpages are already competing for the same phrase. I could deal with that, but generally that’s not good. I want a phrase that has less than 100,000 competing pages . . . but I like the traffic number.

Given the good traffic statistics for “increase web traffic” I run a similar keyword research report . . . this time for “increase traffic”. I narrow my result to keywords that have at least 80 clicks per day, a PBR score of at least 15% and no more than 100,000 competing webpages.

Based on the screenshot below, I discover that “targeted web traffic” is a good candidate.

“Targeted web traffic” gets 112 clicks in the first position on Google, has a PBR score of 36% and only 64,100 completing webpages. This is a pretty good keyword phrase to target and I’ll go with this one for now.

How will I use keywords to drive targeted web traffic to my site?

I’ll use this new phrase in a number of ways to drive traffic to my site. Basically, I’m telling the search engines and, ultimately, my readers, what my content is about. No trickery here. Learning how to drive targeted web traffic is exactly what the 30 Day Traffic Challenge is all about. I don’t want random traffic – I want targeted traffic. You should want the same. Make sense?

I’ll use my new keywords throughout my blog in meta-tags, titles, descriptions, keywords, categories, post tags, image tags, anchor text and more.
Off-site, I’ll use these keywords to find relevant 3rd party blogs and content with which to comment and use as inspiration for my own blog posts.
Understanding my keywords will also allow me to speak more directly to my audience, since I more clearly understand what they want.

Again, understanding how keywords work and what people are searching for online is critical if you want to attract a target audience through natural search optimization.

Guessing or choosing keywords based on intuition can really waste everyone’s time and effort. Don’t do it.

That’s it for now. I know this was a bit more technical in nature, but I hope you learned a little. I know I did!

I’ll share some more Market Samurai goodness later with a deep dive into competition and outranking other websites for my keywords. This is gonna be fun, right?

30DTC – Commenting on Other Blogs to Drive Traffic to My Website

Steinar — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:50:18 +0000

It’s day two of my 30 Day Traffic Challenge and today I am going to embark on one of my favorite tactics for driving traffic which is commenting on other blogs. Commenting on other blogs has several implications for driving traffic.First, commenting on other blog posts get you involved in the conversation. It allows people to see who you are and click through to your website if you leave a link.

Listen or Download

Second, if enabled, your link on someone else’s blog post can be indexed by Google. By default most blogs use a no-follow rule which means that your link will not be indexed; however, with the help of Market Samurai I can find blogs that have this option set up to allow search engines to index my link. This creates a backlink to my website, which is one of the leading variables to determine how my site ranks on search engine results.

Third, leaving comments on other peopl’s blog posts forces me to keep on top of the latest trends, strategies and tactics others are using within my niche. In my case, I’m going to comment on blog posts that have to do with driving traffic to your website. I not only get to learn about what others are doing, but I get to use this information as inspiration for some of my upcoming blog posts.

For me, commenting on at least three blog posts per day is a reasonable frequency and pace that I can maintain over the course of 30 days. There is a ton of information on the Internet about driving traffic to your website so I feel like there will be no shortage of blog posts to find and comment on. This may or may not be the case for you depending on your niche.

A best practice when commenting on other people’s blog posts is to add insightful information to the original blog post. There’s nothing worse than leaving a boring comment with a link to your website. This adds no value and can ultimately hurt your search engine optimization. It can also hurt your reputation.

On the other hand, leaving an insightful comment that adds value to the conversation will draw additional comments and can help build your reputation overtime. You may even find some new people to follow online and build mutually beneficial relationships.

That’s it for now. I have some comments to leave. Do you regularly leave comments on other blogs? Why or why not?

Sent from my iPhone 4S

Current Website Unique Visitors and 30 Day Traffic Challenge Goal

Steinar — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:24:24 +0000

The intention of this post is to establish the unique visitor traffic baseline for my 30 Day Traffic Challenge. Since this is about traffic, I turned to Google Analytics to see if I could easily determine an appropriate timeframe with which to compare my future performance.

It would be easy to use a monthly average based on the prior 12 months or year-to-date traffic, but since my traffic has steadily increased over that time, I didn’t feel that would really provide an accurate read on the situation.

In the following chart you can see I was able to identify 3 plateaus since the beginning of the year. In the Jan-Feb timeframe my traffic sat around 1,600 unique visitors per month. In the March to Jun period traffic hovered around 2,000 and from July thru October, it has increased to approximately 2,900 unique visitors per month. Given the sizable differences, I think it makes most sense to establish the baseline on the last 4 month period.

Next I focussed on the exact period in question. Google Analytics tells me I had 11,700 unique visitors during the last 4 months from July 1 – October 31st. Divided by 4, this is equivalent to 2,925 unique visitors per month.

So . . . 2,925 unique visitors per month is my baseline and 8,875 unique visitors is my goal for November!

Kinda scary if you think about it. A much safer metric to target would have been pageviews, since it’s relatively easier to get more page views from exiting traffic than to drive more unique traffic in general. But, I think targeting unique visitors is worth the fight — I need some new eyes on my content!

Again, some quick math concludes this is about 293 visitors per day. Sweet! We can do this!

———————–

Now that we’ve got that covered, let talk about some things I need to do right away.

Ping.fm

First, I just revisited my kick-off post for the 30 Day Traffic Challenge and “pinged it” with Ping.fm. This is a great tool, because it allows you to send a link to a number of popular social media and other bookmarking sites at once. For example, my Ping.fm account is set up to notify 16 social media sites, including my Twitter account and Facebook Page. This is a huge timesaver and has great search engine optimization implications.

There’s some debate over the use of tools such as Ping.fm to send the same post to multiple sites at once. My argument is that everyone has their preference for where they consume content. Some of my readers are on Twitter and others are on Facebook. There is some overlap but by and large, they are separate. Even if some of my followers are connected with me on multiple platforms, chances are that they have chosen one platform to spend a majority of their time on and therefore are probably not going to see my post more than once.

In terms of SEO, it’s clear that social media content is playing an increasing role in how content surfaces on the front page of major search engines. In my experience, it seems like roughly 40% of the search results I get on Google these days are related to one of my social media account relationships. I only see this trend continuing and therefore think it’s important to feed these platforms with links back to my website. I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.

Meta Tag Keywords and Descriptions

Meta tag keywords and descriptions are still an important element of driving traffic to your site. Keywords in and of themselves are critical to any sep campaign. Long-tail keywords in particular are the keywords that users enter into search engines to find your content.

For most of us, long-tail keywords probably manifest themselves in the form of 1) our personal or brand name 2) a unique phrase we may use frequently throughout out website and blog posts and 3) a keyword phrase we’ve specifically researched and optimized our content around. All three are valid and can drive good traffic. Check your Google Analytics for more information.

One area I really need to work on is taking an extra minute to define my blog post meta tags and description. For the last 12 months or so I’ve just let my WordPress theme take care of this for me. Unfortunately, when I look at the source code of my pages, I’m not happy with the resulting meta tags, so I’m going to do this manually throughout the course of my challenge to really get a handle on this important detail.

Fortunately, the Thesis Theme I’m using for this blog has a great setup of post option boxes where I can set the meta tags.

I’ll explain this in more detail later, but I’m going to use a tool called Market Samurai to analyze my long-tail keyword choices and selection.

Any thoughts on meta tag keywords and descriptions?

3 Reasons to Share Facebook Content on Twitter

Steinar — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:35:27 +0000

Sharing content across multiple social media platforms is a common practice to help get your message out and communicate with your audience where they are most likely to see your content. A good example is sharing Facebook content on Twitter. Most businesses have an account on both platforms and have considered either linking the two up or posting to both networks simultaneously.

Some argue that this practice may be considered spam or at least annoying for users to some degree. So why would you want to do it then?

If you do not have a blog, Facebook may in some cases serve as a platform to share information in more detail than Twitter. In this case, when you post new content to Facebook, you want to share that information on Twitter for others to read. You really don’t have much of a choice.
If you share a lot of pictures, Twitter really isn’t the best platform. Facebook on the other hand provides a great set of tools to upload pictures, organize them into albums and write meaningful descriptions. Once this is done it makes perfect sense to send out a notification on Twitter.
Facebook is really great for managing events and allowing people to RSVP. It’s also more conducive to sharing details prior to and pictures after the event. If you want to increase participation, it’s probably wise to promote the event registration link on Twitter to potentially increase your audience.

So there are 3 specific examples of when it would seem appropriate to share Facebook content on Twitter. Unfortunately, it seems the default it either share nothing or share everything.

One thing to consider –most mobile phones (even Smart Phones) have trouble with Facebook links that show up on Twitter. They usually send folks to facebook.com rather that open the Facebook mobile application. In some cases, your followers may never actually find your content. It’s extremely frustrating, so think about your end users and ask them what they think.

Do you share Facebook content on Twitter? Why?

Setting SMART Goals for your 2012 Internet Marketing Strategy

Steinar — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:37:51 +0000

Internet Marketing continues to serve as a powerful channel for communicating with your market. Social media, geo-location services and mobile devices extend the opportunity to reach your audience in a new and different way and add value to the discussion happening online.

Spending time now to develop your internet marketing strategy for next year will provide you with the appropriate baseline, timeline and milestones to ensure effective execution. Part of that process is establishing goals with which to measure your success.

Setting SMART goals is a proven approach to achieving success more quickly. As the year winds down, this is the perfect opportunity to examine your goals for 2011 and apply the SMART mnemonic or acronym to increase the likelihood your goals are met.

SMART stands for:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Timely

Free Template Downloads:

Specific

You want to clearly define your goals to articulate specifically what you are trying to achieve. The question is what, how and why are you striving toward this goal?

What are you going to do? Use action words, such as create, sell, manage, or grow, etc. to bring a sense of energy to your goals.
Why are you doing this? What is the ultimate outcome? Why is this important and what impact will this have on you, your business, or your customers?
How are you going to do this? What are the sub-goals or action steps that will enable you to achieve your goal

The more specific you are, the greater your ability to identify success when it occurs. For example, “I will write and publish 21 blog posts (250-400 words) about skydiving equipment by March 1, 2010.“ In this example I used action words “write and publish”, specified the number, length, and topic of the blog posts and put a date on it. As we’ll discuss next, this goal is also measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.

Measurable

If you cannot measure your goals then you cannot manage your progress. Furthermore, it is far more difficult to achieve your objectives if a) you do not measure your progress or b) you do not measure the appropriate metrics. In some cases a progress chart, table or simple checklist might help.

For example, you might be trying to improve visitor conversion rates. Using a web statistics tool, such as Google Analytics, can help track vital statistics but make sure you understand and pick the right metric that defines success. You can get 1,000 visitors a day, but if no one buys, that metric is meaningless. Don’t get caught up trying to move the wrong target.

Attainable

Is your goal possible? Is it limited by your resources or require more time to achieve? I encourage you to set stretch goals for yourself to push your limits, but keep them within reach. The benefit is that you’ll see real progress toward success. The risk is that you do not achieve your goals and lose momentum or hope.

For example, you may have just launched a new blog and you want 20% of your visitors to sign up for your newsletter out of the gate. While this is a realistic rate that you could eventually achieve, it is unlikely to happen right away. A more attainable goal would be to grow your newsletter list by 5% each month.

Realistic

Is your goal realistic? You might want 5,000 newsletter subscribers, which is attainable, but is it realistic to achieve this goal by within 2 weeks? Maybe not. Be honest with yourself and your business when setting goals by keeping them realistic or you risk disappointment.

Timely

When is the deadline to achieve your goal? Next week, 3 months, by year end? Setting a specific date will help you identify your tactical sub-goals and action steps to achieve your goal within a given deadline. Map out these deadlines or milestones on a calendar. Plan rewards for yourself when you cross each line.

A common mistake is to generalize about timing. For example, avoid using descriptions such as “this year, next quarter, in the next two weeks.” Without a specific date, these deadlines will slip away.

In my experience, SMART goals help you reach your objectives more quickly with a defined path for success. I recommend writing them down and revisiting them frequently to check progress and adapt to changing circumstances. In most cases, you will over-achieve — either beating a deadline or delivering something of greater value.

What’s your experience setting goals for the new year? Do you use the SMART mnemonic?

Search and Email Still Powerful Channels for Online Marketing

Steinar — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:28:43 +0000

Most of the hype over the past few years has been focussed on social media, and rightly so. In many cases, social media is a preferred communication channel over other forms on online marketing, but the fact remains that search and email are still among the most popular online activities and should still be considered valuable components of the marketing mix.

Search and email remain the two online activities that are nearly universal among adult internet users, as 92% of online adults use search engines to find information on the Web, and a similar number (92%) use email …

… Today, roughly six in ten online adults engage in each of these activities on a typical day; in 2002, 49% of online adults used email each day, while just 29% used a search engine daily.

via Search and Email Still the Most Popular Online Activities – Pew Research Center.

There are a several tactics to leverage search and email activity to drive eyeballs to your website. Here are a few ideas:

Implement a Search Engine Optimization strategy on your website. This doesn’t have to be rocket science, but understanding the basics of SEO and doing a little bit everyday can drive a significant spike in traffic.
Write content on your website that answers your potential customers’ most pressing questions. What are the top 7 questions people always ask you and what are the top7 questions they should be asking you. Write helpful blog posts that address those questions and you’ll attract a growing audience.
Use a newsletter subscription service such as Aweber so that readers can subscribe to your blog via email. The fact is, most folks don’t really understand how to subscribe to your RSS feed and email is just more convenient.
Leverage the direct messaging capabilities of social media sites to send email to your followers. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube all provide you with this functionality to communicate privately, 1:1 via email.

What do you think? Are search and email still powerful marketing tools?

Why it may be time to purge your Twitter account

Steinar — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:14:02 +0000

What is your following strategy on Twitter?

It’s kind of a funny question but if you’ve been on Twitter for any length of time this question has crossed your mind. Most people start out on Twitter by following friends or colleagues that they already know and soon they branch out to people within their geographic region.

The next logical step is to consider people within your niche. Maybe you’re a realtor? Or maybe you’re a doctor? Maybe you start to connect with people who share similar interests by identifying individuals based on their job description or certain characteristics within their Twitter bio.

Beyond that you might run across people that have tweeted interesting posts and therefore you follow them as well. Or maybe you follow someone based on a “Follow Friday” recommendation. And then there are random people that you run across on Twitter that you find interesting and you start to follow them too.

Lately I’ve taken a more aggressive approach to following people on Twitter. I’ve used the search functionality within Twitter to identify people that I might find interesting whether they are in my niche or in adjacent industries. I’ve even used some software to automate the process. Don’t hate me for that – it’s my job to test this stuff out.

At the end the day I was following nearly 1500 people. It has simply become overwhelming and has ultimately decreased the value in terms of my experience interacting with people on Twitter on a daily basis. I just couldn’t find the meaningful discussions through all the noise.

Maybe you’ve heard the common assumption that we really can’t follow more than 150 people and still maintain meaningful relationships on social media platforms. I think that is for the most part pretty true.

And so today I am embarking on a kind of purging of my Twitter account. I am unfollowing people by the masses. People that don’t interact with me or people that I find do not add much value to the conversation. It’s not that big of a deal – we’re only talking about roughly 1,350 people, not tens or hundreds of thousands of people.

I think that when this process is complete I’ll have a much more solid set of people that I follow that I find interesting, not only locally but also within my niche.

I think it’s good every now and then to analyze the people that you are talking with online and consider the quality of conversations you’re having on a daily basis.

If you find that your experience on Twitter and other social media platforms is waning, I encourage you to do the same.

Many before me have taken the same stance and discovered that the overall quality of their daily social media experience has improved. In fact, you’ll probably develop deeper relationships with the people you do follow and find a stronger voice within your market.

What are your thoughts?

BTW, I “wrote” this post using the Dragon Dictation iPhone App. I highly recommend it if you prefer to talk rather than type.

Social Networking Site Usage Among Adults on the Rise

Steinar — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:34:53 +0000

I often hear the excuse from reluctant business owners that “our customers don’t use social media.” I often come back with a series of statistics, such as the following that suggest otherwise.

Fully 65% of adult internet users now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61% one year ago. This marks the first time in Pew Internet surveys that 50% of all adults use social networking sites.

The frequency of social networking site usage among young adult internet users under age 30 was stable over the last year – 61% of online Americans in that age cohort now use social networking sites on a typical day, compared with 60% one year ago. However, among the Boomer-aged segment of internet users ages 50-64, social networking site usage on a typical day grew a significant 60% (from 20% to 32%).

via 65% of online adults use social networking sites | Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

First, I’ll admit it’s kinda funny that MySpace is listed here. Sure they have new ownership now but I don’t see them as a driving force. Nonetheless, they still have a few hundred million users, so it’s only fair to include MySpace in the mix.

Here are my thoughts on the numbers above:

65% is probably conservative. When I ask groups of people I often see numbers in the 75%-80% percent range. I think there’s a big population of people that don’t even realize their on a social media site when browsing the web. For example, it could be fairly simple to confuse a Ning niche site with a regular blog or standard forum for that matter … even if you’re visiting the site everyday.
Stability of social media usage among the younger audience is expected. This demographic was the first to arrive on the scene, has kicked the tires and is now settled in on their 1-2 favorite social media sites for a while. They’ll shift to different platforms overtime, but I don’t see them abandoning social media anytime soon.
60% usage growth within the 50-64 age group makes sense for several reasons. One, this group was late to the party, so they’re just now getting up to speed. Two, they’ve been convinced by their children and other relatives that there is value in connecting with family members on social media platforms. And three, they’ve actually been on social media platforms all along and they’re just now ready to admit it.

So, if you’re a business owner and still contemplating the value of social media to connect with your market, I urge you to consider this study and many others like it that illustrate the shift toward all this social.

What do you think? What can we learn from these trends and how does it impact marketing your business online?

Companies Still Struggle with Social Media Return on Investment (ROI)

Steinar — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 02:37:25 +0000

It’s amazing to hear that with all the hype over the past couple years that a large number of companies have yet to measure social media return on investment.

Over half of executives in the food and drink industries do not measure the return on investment ROI they get from their use of social media, according to a just-food and just-drinks survey.

More than 54% of industry professionals said they did not monitor the ROI that their companies make on social media networks. A further 18% “did not know” if the business in which they worked measured the returns.

via Food and Beverage Industry Failing to Grasp Social Media Potential – PR Newswire – sacbee.com.

I understand that, like most marketing strategies, measuring results can be difficult. Much like many forms of advertising, it’s not always clear how customers come to finally do business with your company. Was it an ad they saw? Was it a combination of market touch points that built trust and credibility over time. Was there a specific tipping point from a particular campaign that drove the sale?

At the bare minimum, it’s critical that companies outline the metrics that define success when measuring social media ROI. Return may include awareness, familiarity, sales, leads, referrals, customer satisfaction and more. At the end of the day, investment boils down to time and money.

What metrics are important for your business? How can social media help move the needle? Start with the end in mind and craft a social media strategy to help drive results toward these goals. Don’t overcomplicate things by feeling obligated to track every single source of customer acquisition. Analyze a significantly significant sample and draw intelligent conclusions.

Test a variety of social media tactics and track results closely to create a winning plan over time. Measure these results against one another and against traditional forms of marketing. Maybe social media isn’t worth the investment. Maybe the lifetime value of customers is higher through direct mail or cold calling. If you don’t measure, you’ll never know.

Social media is not a fad, so please don’t use that as an excuse not to measure. Dedicate some time to map out your goals, identify your target market, identify the right tools to use and a process that minimizes strain on the organization.

One final thought – don’t expect immediate results. Social media takes time. You can definitely experience short-term, incremental success, but it’s important to consider the big picture and set expectations accordingly.

Any questions? Good luck!

How I use Google Analytics as Inspiration for Future Blog Posts

Steinar — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 06:08:35 +0000

I pay pretty close attention to my Google Analytics stats, because it’s a great way to find out what people are looking for and why they visit my site. HINT: It doesn’t show you any data from the people that did not visit your site, but you can use Google Webmaster Tools to do that.

More importantly, smart queries I run on keyword search data serves as great inspiration for future blog posts. To illustrate this point, I thought it would be fun to share a list of the search queries on my site from July that begin with “how.” This is a solid indicator of what questions people have and how I may be able to help them.

If you have Google Analytics and would like to run this same report on your site …

Go to Analytics>Traffic Sources >All Traffic.
Select Keywords as the Secondary Dimension
Enter “how” as the search term
Click Advanced and select “begins with”

Of course, you can change any of the variables to run a different report depending on your needs.

July search queries that begin with “How”

how to start a podcast
how important are tags in wordpress
how to attract customers
how does youtube search engine work
how to create a podcast on ipad
how to get facebook show my site picture when i post a link
how to make a podcast on ipad
how to publish podcast using ipad
how youtube seo works
how can ipad help my business
how i use my ipad
how to improve business facebook page
how to record podcast on ipad
how to share images from your website to facebook
how to share photos on page
how to start a pod cast
how to swipe back in web browser mac lion
how to swipe between desktops in lion
how youtube search works
how are consumers using foursquare
how businesses can leverage fourquare
how can a ipad help my business
how can an ipad help my business
how can companies engage with customers on twitter
how can i podcast with garage band for ipad
how can i scan a qr code into my phone?
how can i scan qr code on my phone
how can ipads help my business
how can the i pad help my business
how can the ipad be used to help business
how come i can no longer use the 3 finger swipe for back and forward in my browser on os x lion?
how do i create podcast on ipad
how do i create podcasts with an ipad
“how do i engage “”user agent”" in safari”
how do i get my garage band audio published as a podcast
how do i get my podcast in iweb to work
how do i make a podcast on ipad
how do i record podcast on ipad
how do i scan a qr code into my phone
how do i share a wall photo in facebook?
how do i use a mouse icon on the i pad?
how do i use the cursor in ipad safari
how do you engage with your customers?*
how do you get a different cursor for ipad
how do you get images to show up when you post links on facebook
how do you get picture show up in facebook link
how do you get your website logo to show up on facebook when you post its link
how do you make podcast on ipad
how do you scan a qr code into your phone
how do you swipe between desktops on osx lion
how do you swipe between desktops os x lion
how does facebook and twitter improve a business
how does fooursquare work for retailers
how fast is social networking growing
how i can share link from youtube on facebook via ipad
how important are post tags?
how important are tags in wordpress websites
how important is it to use post tags
how important tag post
how insert paypal buy now button in wordpress
how ipad help business
how much does it cost to distribute a podcast through itunes?
how much does it cost to start a podcast
how much does starting a podcast start
how to 520 grid
how to add author title to podcast in iweb
how to attract bussiness to your storefront
how to attract clients to your location
how to attract customers in opening day
how to attract customers to storefront
how to attract customers to your coffee store
how to attract customers to your store?
how to attract first time customer mobile phones
how to attract your online customers
how to build a distribution strategy
how to build samson mic
how to connect facebook video
how to create a fbml layout
how to create and publish a podcast on itunes from your ipad
how to create ipad podcast
how to create podcast for ipad
how to create podcast ipad
how to define social media objectives
how to define your social media objectives
how to do a blog mini series
how to do a podcast on an ipad
how to do podcast from ipad
how to drive customer engagement
how to embed a video from hulu on wordpress
how to embed audioboo into wordpress post
how to enhance my business facebook page
how to finger swipe browser on mac
how to fix facebook linter tool errors
how to get a description of your link to show up on facebook
how to get a picture to show up in facebook link
how to get a picture to show when you post a link on facebook
how to get better customers with social media
how to get cool back/forward in osx lion
how to get facebook show the picture when you link
how to get facebook wall updates from all friends
how to get website picture in facebook link
how to have picture show up facebook link
how to i improve my business page for facebook
how to improve facebook business page
how to improve facebook business pages
how to improve your company’s facebook page tutorial
how to link a blog for affiliate marketing
how to linter old post
how to log in to facebook as a page
how to log in to facebook pages
how to login as page facebook
how to lure customers by redeem marketing strategies
how to make a podcast for ipad
how to make a podcast from a ipad
how to make a podcast ipad
how to make a podcast mac garageband skype
how to make a podcast with skype on mac
how to make custom facebook layouts
how to make iphone to be a mouse on ipad
how to make podcast on ipad
how to make podcat on ipad
how to make the existing content works
how to mini-websites in facebook page
how to navigate in browsers with lion
how to navigate swipe os x lion
how to ping facebook for rss update
how to podcast a video from my ipad
how to podcast from ipad
how to podcast from your ipad
how to podcast garageband ipad
how to podcast on ipad
how to podcast with garageband ipad
how to podcast with your ipad
how to post audio
how to post in wall photos page
how to post update on facebook page
how to post updates on facebook
how to post updates on facebook page
how to post where you’re at on facebook
how to properly tag your images
how to publish a garageband podcast
how to publish a podcast on itunes ipad
how to publish a video from ipad
how to publish mp3 audio on twitter
how to pubslish podcast in iweb
how to record a podcast on ipad
how to record a podcast using the ipad
how to record a video podcast on ipad
how to record podcast from ipad
how to record podcast ipad
how to record sound and video on an ipad
how to record video blog on ipad
how to right click in osx lion browser
how to scan into my iphone
how to setup a new store front to attract people
how to share facebook wall to
how to share images in facebook from other site
how to share link on facebook with ipad
how to share photo from other website to facebook
how to share photos on a facebook page
how to share photos on another facebook page
how to share photos on facebook pages
how to share pictures on wall
how to share pictures on your wall
how to share tagged photos of you on facebook on your wall
how to share wall photo on facebook
how to start a podcast equipment
how to start a podcast on itunes
how to swip in browser in lion
how to swipe back in os x lion browser
how to swipe back lion browser
how to swipe back web navigation osx lion
how to swipe between desktops on lion
how to swipe to navigate on lion
how to uplaod a single picture to your wall on facebook
how to use 520grid
how to use ipad daily
how to use login facebook
how to use press this on wordpress
how to videocast ipad
how to wall photos on facebook
how web 2.0 works in seo
how will an ipad help productivity
how would a ipad help my business
how youtube search engine works
howto 520grid Facebook

How could this type of data from your website help you write better blog posts?

Top 5 Facebook User Activities on an Average Day

Steinar — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:19:59 +0000

A recent white paper from the Pew Research Center illustrates that Users Liking another users’s content is the most common behavior on Facebook. Here’s a detailed breakdown . . .

On Facebook on an average day:

15% of Facebook users update their own status.
22% comment on another’s post or status.
20% comment on another user’s photos.
26% “Like” another user’s content.
10% send another user a private message

This is pretty important data if you’re in the Facebook marketing game.

For starters, you might conclude that Facebook users generally prefer to be on the recieving end. Liking is a single click activity and it’s the most common behavior. Next time your boss asks why so few people comment on your Facebook Page, show him this data.

The second takeway is common sense really . . .

those who post content on Facebook stand out
those who post the best content get more Likes
those who post more of the best content, get the most Likes

What’s your Facebook marketing strategy? Is your Facebook Page getting the attention it deserves? What can you change to leverage this user behavior data and differentiate your business?

Are women more likely to Like you on Facebook?

Steinar — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:49:04 +0000

A recent white paper from the Pew Research Center suggests that women Like Facebook content more often than men.

The dichotomy between the two groups is clear …

Though I have my theories, I’m not a human behavior specialist nor will I attempt to explain why this is the case. As a marketer, however, I will embrace this data and use it to better leverage Facebook as a marketing tool. No sense spinning your wheels, right?

If you are marketing on Facebook you should think about a few things based on this data:

20% of women “like” content on Facebook several times a day compare to only 9% of men. Think about that. The more relevant your content is to women, the greater chance you have to get Likes for this group.
In general, the more content you put out, the more opportunities there are for people to Like. Of course, there are limits . . . what are those limits? Depends on your market really. Some folks can only handle one post per day, while others expect ten. Play around with this a bit and push the limits. See what works – you might be surprised.
In some cases, getting men to Like your content on Facebook may be a serious challenge, since 28% of men indicate they never click the Like button. Could a better strategy include targeting women to indirectly get your message across to men? This will obviously depend greatly on your market and how different forms of influence determine decision making among your users.

What do you think? Is this data relevant to your Facebook marketing strategy? Will you do something different as a result?

Age distribution by social networking site platform

Steinar — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:13:05 +0000

A recent white paper from the Pew Research Center illustrates the subtle differences in age distribution by social networking site platform, including MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other.

Here are a few takeaways:

Not terribly surprised that MySpace is mostly comprised of younger users, given the timing of MySpace’s popularity prior to the broader explosion of social media.
I think most businesses that are considering marketing on Facebook would be surprised to see that 25% of users are 50+ and 18-22 only make up 16% of the userbase
LinkedIn numbers seem right, given that the target market is mostly made up of middle aged working folks.
50+ crowd only accounts for 17% of users on Twitter. As the youngest social media site in this group, I imagine we’ll see rapid growth for this age group in the next 12 months.

What does this data mean? Well it means something different, depending on who you are and why you’re using social media.

As an individual user looking to connect with other people, hopefully this will help you figure out where people in the same age range hang out online. If you’re using social media for business as part of your marketing mix, this data should provide some valuable insight as well to help position your brand and marketing message.

What do you think? Is this data helpful? What other demographic variables are important to consider?

How to leverage Foursquare to engage local consumers and grow your business

Steinar — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:29:54 +0000

Foursquare is a web and mobile application that let’s users virtually “check-in” to your location and share their experience with friends within their social network.

Unlike Twitter, where people mostly talk about what they’re up to, Foursquare uses GPS to geo-tag an individual’s location. For example, if I visit Starbucks I can use the Foursquare iPhone app to “check-in”. When I do this, all my Foursquare friends and Twitter followers get an update or notification. That is, roughly 1500 people now see that I’m at Starbucks. While I’m there I can also add a comment, attach a photo or leave a tip for others that check-in later.

Why do I use Foursquare as a consumer? I check-in on Foursquare for a few reasons. First, I want to share places I love with my friends. I love the lunch menu at West Main Restaurant in Charlottesville, so every time I go there I take a picture of my meal and check-in. I also check-in to places because maybe it’s someplace new and I want to make other people aware of this store or location. Finally, I check-in on Foursquare because I want rewards. If I check-in enough I’ll become what’s called the Mayor. In some restaurants and retail establishment, the Mayor is given special discounts, free parking or other perks. That’s where you come in.

Businesses need to get a grasp on Foursquare to leverage the fact that there are millions of users checking in all the time. In Charlottesville alone there are likely 1,000 people actively using Foursquare on a regular basis. Most of us share our check-ins on Twitter and Facebook. What does this mean for your business? Well, if your business has some special incentive you could offer those who check-in or earn Mayor status, your brand can get a serious number of impressions across the social landscape rather quickly.

If you own a business, go to foursquare.com, register as a user and claim your location. Set up a special for all the Foursquare users out there and make it a good one. I don’t want 10% off – I want something really special.

Is your business using Foursquare? How’s that going? If not, why?

Video: how to connect with and engage other businesses on Facebook with your Facebook Page

Steinar — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 20:56:21 +0000

In the following two videos I show you how to connect with and engage other businesses on Facebook with your Facebook Page. This is a powerful strategy to build b2b relationships and build brand awareness through other brands.

Social Media for Business and Sporting Events Marketing

Steinar — Thu, 12 May 2011 03:34:37 +0000

In this video, I join Jim Harshaw of Riot Sports Marketing to discuss the impact that social media is having on event marketing, specifically within sports. Much of these lessons also translate well to business events.

Some key points to highlight:

Twitter allows people to engage in a live event in real-time. This is especially powerful at large events and beneficial to those that may not actually be at the event but would like to stay up-to-date.
Social media allows fans or customers to connect with your organization and connect with each other. This reinforces their relationship with your brand, adding a new level of credibility, trust and loyalty. Don’t underestimate the power of making your followers feel like they are part of something special.
Social media is a great channel to promote your organization in a niche that may not otherwise get much airtime. For example, lacrosse gets relatively low coverage in the news, but with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube I have new opportunities to connect with the sport and other fans within my area. Very powerful stuff!
There are several ways to leverage Facebook during events to engage your fans, including videos and photos or play-by-play updates. If you don’t have resources on staff to post this content, recruit a fan or customer to pitch in – they’ll most likely feel honored to help out.
There are several ways to grow your Facebook Page fanbase. Some quick strategies include a) import a CSV contact list, 2) include your Facebook URL in your email signature, 3) use your Facebook URL in any print or offline marketing literature and 4) target users with Facebook Ads.

How are you using social media to engage your market? What works within your industry?

Blog Monetization Strategy: Downloadable Products (Charlottesville Blogville Conference)

Steinar — Fri, 06 May 2011 21:32:21 +0000

Last week I spoke at the Blogville Conference in Charlottesville on the subject of Monetization. This is a short except from that presentation specifically discussing potential of driving income with the use of downloadable products.

Description: Digital and information products that may be purchased online, such as software, e-books, photos, music, plugins, podcasts, and videos.
Benefits: Immediate delivery, higher profit margins, no inventory, completely automated, ability to update or change products on demand.
Tools & Resources: Word or Pages, Audacity or Garageband, Camtasia or Screenflow, e-junkie, 1shoppingcart, lulu, Amazon, Blurb, PayPal
Implementation: Use a shopping cart service to provide simple execution. Test various price points. Offer free version with up-sell. Consider 1-time purchase vs. subscription.
Reality Check: Creating downloadable products is one of the easiest methods of product creation and usually costs nothing (except time). Challenge yourself to create one this week!

Blog Monetization Strategy: Affiliate Marketing (Charlottesville Blogville Conference)

Steinar — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:26:05 +0000

Description: Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards you (their affiliate) for each purchase or action brought about by the your marketing of their products.
Benefits: Earnings potential using targeted ads that require little or no customization and drive revenue 24/7.
Tools & Resources: Amazon Associates, Google Affiliate Network, Google Adsense, ClickBank, LinkShare, Commission Junction, ProBlogger.net, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com
Implementation: Be true to your niche audience or tribe; provide value – ads should be something you feel good about or use yourself; more is not necessarily better; provide your own personal review for best results; measure results and weed out low performers.
Reality Check: Earnings potential may be limited in local markets

Blog Monetization Strategy: Capturing Leads (Charlottesville Blogville Conference)

Steinar — Wed, 04 May 2011 20:15:25 +0000

Last week I spoke at the Blogville Conference in Charlottesville on the subject of Monetization. This video is a short except from that presentation specifically discussing the front end process of capturing leads.

Description: Capturing leads on your blog is the process of allowing visitors to share their email or contact information with you in order to communicate with them in the future.
Benefits: Capturing lead information provides the opportunity to develop deeper relationships with your readers, facilitate knowledge transfer, offer specials deals and build out your network.
Tools & Resources: Aweber, Constant Contact, iContact, MailChimp, Facebook Like, Twitter
Implementation: Embed a lead capture form. Don’t ask for a lot of information. Consider offering something of immediate value in return.
Reality Check: Readers will only opt-in to your list if they trust you can offer value specific to their needs. Consider a 3% opt-in rate excellent for a simple, non-targeted opt-in form. A highly targeted opt-in form on a landing page could expect something more in the range of 20-40%.

Monetizing your Blog with Affiliate Marketing

Steinar — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:23:52 +0000

In preparation for my speaking gig at the Blogville Conference in Charlottesville next week on the subject Monetizing Your Blog I thought I would share some thoughts on affiliate marketing.

If you have a blog and would like to make more money with it, affiliate marketing can be a great complement to your blogging efforts. I don’ really recommend this as a long term monetization strategy, but it definitely works if you’re pationate about promoting other people’s products.

I don’t personally use (much) affiliate marketing on this site and when I do I make it clear. I do however have a number of other sites that are 100% affiliate driven and deliver some nice income on the side. They require very little attention and basically run on autopilot.

Here’s a quick breakdown on the basics of affiliate marketing:

Description: Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards you (their affiliate) for each purchase or action brought about by the your marketing of their products.
Benefits: Earning potential using targeted ads that require little or no customization and drive revenue 24/7.
Tools & Resources: Amazon Associates, Google Affiliate Network, Google Adsense, ClickBank, LinkShare, Commission Junction, ProBlogger.net, Entrepreurs-Journey.com
Reality Check: Earning potential may be limited in local markets

Here is a checklist of ideas to help you skillfully incorporate affiliate marketing into your blog.

Think about the subject of your blog and your typical blog reader. What types of products would they be interested in? What products do you like and would like to recommend to your readers?
If you have space for promotional graphics and advertising in your blog layout, use it. If you happen to have unsold ad space, never leave a blank “Your Ad Here” space. Instead, use that space for an affiliate graphic. Having blank ad space gives your potential advertisers the image that your blog may not be worth advertising on.
Write posts on topics that lend themselves to linking to the products you want to recommend. For example, if you’re going to be promoting wedding dresses, write a post about choosing the perfect wedding dress, making it a natural fit for your affiliate link.
Write a product review. Your loyal readers value your opinion, give them full details about the product and your honest thoughts…and then insert your affiliate link.
Include a “My Favorites” section in your blog sidebar and link to the product. Instead of a traditional blogroll, why not include affiliate links to some of your favorite products.
If you have a mailing list sign up for your blog, be sure to promote a product on the thank you page and in your follow-up emails.
Publish the articles, special reports and other content provided by the affiliate program on your blog.
Write follow-up posts. Just because you posted on a topic once, doesn’t mean you can’t follow up with more information. You can also post review updates, more ideas for using the products and more.

Two of my favorite affiliate marketing networks are Commission Junction and LinkShare. I’ve used them both extensively on some of my other blogs and made some good money in the process. You can expect somewhere between 5-15% commission on sales through these networks and in my experience you can double that if you build a relationship and negotiate some special terms with the affiliate manager.

Have you tried affiliate marketing on your blog? Was it successful and/or what other monetization options to you find more financially rewarding?

How to Attract Customers to Your Storefront with Foursquare

Steinar — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:12:53 +0000

Foursquare is one of the leading geo-location check-in mobile applications available to the millions of smart phone users around the world. It basically allows people to indicate they are at or nearby a given location based on GPS enabled services bundled with their phone. If you think this sounds silly, consider the fact that Foursquare is adding 35,000 new users each day as of April 2011.

For example, let’s say I stop in at a local coffee shop. When I open Foursquare on my iPhone, it recognizes that I’m nearby and with the click of a button I can “Check-In.” If I have “friends” or connections I’ve established on Foursquare then they all see see my check-in as well. I may also choose to broadcast my check-in on Twitter and Facebook and include a comment or picture as well.

At this point, I’ve shared my location, the name of the retailer and potentially some other color commentary to my friends. Simple enough.

Retailer Venue Setup on Foursquare

The retailer, on the other hand, has just benefited from free publicity. If I have 1200 friends between Twitter and Facebook, that’s 1200 people that have just seen their brand name. Maybe I mentioned how good the coffee was or how delightful the service was. Again, more free publicity.

Most retailers have a listing on Foursquare whether they know it or not. By simply creating an account, they can login, claim their location and update their profile with additional information to help spread the word and best represent their brand on Foursquare. It only takes a few minutes and can make a world of difference. For example, you can add detailed address information, product categories, and add tips and links to content you choose.

Setting up Foursquare Specials

Retailers and other businesses that use Foursquare have the ability to leverage Foursquare by offering Specials – incentives to Foursquare users that perform certain check-in behavior in order to earn rewards. There are four types of Specials a business can offer on Foursquare:

Friends Special -
You can set a minimum number of foursquare friends a user needs to check-in with to unlock a Special. That special is only redeemed when that pre-set number of friends check-in together. The goal is to get groups of friends coming to your venue.

Swarm Special -
You can set a minmum number of foursquare users that need to check-in within a 3-hour window in order to unlock this Special. It can only be unlocked once per day per venue, and is great to incentivize large groups to visit your business!

Flash Special -
This Special gets its name from “Flash Sale”. You set the number of Specials that you want to unlock per day, then after that its first-come, first-serve. When it reaches the unlock limit, there are no more Specials for the day. This is great for special limitied quanity sales.

Newbie Special -
This type of Special unlocks on a user’s first time visitng your venue. This is the most direct way to drive new traffic to your venue.

Check-in Special -
These are our classic Specials. They unlock on every check-in, or on whatever conditions you apply. This is great for rewarding users on their routine check-ins.

Mayor Special -
This Special is swarded to the Mayor fo your venue. The foursquare Mayor is the most frequent visitor over the last 60 days. This is a great way to reward your best customer and encouraging competition for the prize.

Loyalty Special -
There are a few ways to use a loyalty Special. You can reward a user every X times they visit, you can reward them for coming in X times in total, or you can reward them for being loyal within a certain period: for X visits over Y days.

The Newbie, Check-in, and Mayor specials seem to be most popular, I guess becuase they require the least amount of effort on behalf of both the customer and retailer. The other types of specials require longer-term participation and/or multiple users, so they maybe the next logical step.

What’s most suprising is how few retailers actually setup Specials. In Charlottesville, for example, there are roughly 15 specials throughout the entire city at any given time. Also, for those that have Specials, they haven’t changed … ever! Some retailers have had the same specials for nearly a year. Personally, I think they would benefit from some variety, especially, given the new types of specials available.

Fast Start with Foursquare

If you’re a retailer, first visit Foursquare and find your venue by searching on the homepage. If it’s listed you can “Claim this Venue” and make the necesary adjustments. If your venue does not already exist on foursquare, you can create a new venue by scrolling to the bottom of the search results (bottom of page) and clicking “Add a new venue to foursquare.”

Next, think about potential Specials you can run. Maybe run two to begin – one that’s easy for folks to achieve with a single check-in and another that requires some more work. Make it something truly fantastic, something they’ll want to share with all their friends on Twitter and Facebook.

What do you think of Foursquare? Do you find it useful as a consumer? Has your business seen much success using Foursquare to drive business?

Product Creation Strategies to Monetize Your Blog

Steinar — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:50:51 +0000

I’m speaking next week at the Blogville Conference in Charlottesville on the subject of Blog Monetization and thought I would share some thoughts on product creation.

Creating your own product is one of the best ways to monetize your blog. A lot of bloggers resort to affiliate linking or pay-per-click advertising to generate income but soon discover that, without significant traffic, those methods result in very little income.

Creating your own product today is easier than ever. You can create audio products, video products, and even books that people can purchase directly from your website.

Podcasting is very popular and a terrific method for recording your voice and making it available to an audience that can subscribe to your podcast through PayPal.

Creating an ebook is another very simple method of converting your blog into a product that people can purchase via electronic download. For example, you can take three blog posts, combine them into one document, and save that as a PDF with some simple editing and upload this to your website for someone to purchase.

Including a simple PayPal button allows them to buy your e-book for a nominal fee – whether it’s $7, $17, or $27, depending on the content.

Video is also very simple to execute. Most computers today come with a webcam or you can purchase a handheld digital video recorder for less than $200 that produces outstanding quality. Think about your niche and what they want to know and what you can share with them. Sit down in front of your video camera and talk to your audience. Or share some slides from a powerpoint presentation. Upload that video to YouTube and make it unlisted so that people can’t find it unless you specifically direct them to the URL.

Again, use PayPal as a method for people to purchase the video or a series of videos and provide them with a link to the video upon receipt of payment.

If you are having trouble coming up with ideas for products to create, you have several options. The first and most obvious option is to ask your audience what they want. If you already have a blog or a twitter account or a Facebook page, this is a great channel to survey your customers.

A second approach is to go on to Amazon.com, research some of the leading magazines within your niche and review the table of contents for inspiration on articles or other content that you can create and package into a product.

Third, look at your competition – what are they selling? What’s been successful? Don’t copy these ideas, exactly, but use them as inspiration for your own product.

It’s been suggested that some of the best products are multimedia in nature. That is, you combine audio, text, and video into one package to provide a robust product offering for your customers to purchase. Obviously, the more content you pack into your product, the more you can charge, but do recognize that this will take longer to compile.

What are thoughts about product creation for blog monetization – have you considered creating your own product? What makes sense for you and what’s holding you back? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

18 Inbound Marketing Tactics to Drive Website Traffic and Search Engine Rank

Steinar — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:10:12 +0000

The number one question I get from website owners is “How can I drive more traffic to my site and rank higher in search engines?” This diagram from SEOmoz illustrates the pleathora of options and complexity involved in accomplishing this.

My guess is you’re actively executing on a handful of these tactics. I recommend you install Google Analytics and track their performance. Which channels are driving the most traffic, backlinks and ideal customers to your site? What new channels can you leverage to expand your footprint?

What is Podcasting and Why Is It Important for Your Business

Steinar — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 21:05:48 +0000

In this video I discuss what podcasting is and why it’s important for your business. With the proliferation of mobile devices and the ease with which you can create and publish audio, podcasting is a great channel to promote your business and connect with your market.

What is Podcasting?

Portable on Demand Broadcasting
Netcasting
Regularly schedule content delivery
Audio / Video / Pdf’s
No min or max time requirements
iTunes and/or iPod not required

Why Podcasting is Important for Your Business

Mobile device proliferation
Differentiate your business
Add variety to your blog
Say more with less effort
Discuss topics at length
Interview others
Broaden market reach
Audio may be “easier” than video

Have you tried podcasting? How’s that going for your business?

An Inspirational Story of Entrepreneurship: SEOmoz

Steinar — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:37:35 +0000

SEOmoz has been for some time one of the most popular go-to sources of SEO related information. Here’s a great story of their early beginnings and rise to superstardom.

The Story of Moz: 1981-2011

View more presentations from randfish

I’m particularly impressed with their ability to 1) listen to their customers 2) build products that customers want and 3) position, package and price their products in a meaningful way. My favorite chart is that in which the price continues to increase as the number of subscribers increases as well.

Facebook Fans Are Not Interested In Interacting With Your Company

Steinar — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:27:25 +0000

It’s hard to dispute the conclusions you might draw from this chart that suggests Facebook Fans are really most interested in getting free stuff from the brands they follow on Facebook.

I guess it’s not that surprising, but what did catch my eye is the fact that “interaction” came in last place.

via 4 charts that show how social media drives sales relationships.

What do you think? Why do you “Like” certain brands on Facebook?

Episode 6 – Blogging for Business: Using WordPress as Your Blogging Platform

Steinar — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:19:53 +0000

In this episode I discuss choosing a blogging platform and hosting package. I really focus on WordPress in particular but there are several options, including Blogger, Moveable Type, TypePad, or Tumblr to name a few.

I prefer WordPress because it’s free, it has a great community of users and developers that help provide support and it’s rather simple to use. You can either use WordPress at WordPress.com or download a version at WordPress.org.

I recommend you download WordPress from WordPress.org and install it on your own server. To do this you’ll need a hosting package from a domain hosting service, such as Bluehost. This approach gives you the greatest control and flexibility over the long run.

Adding new posts to your WordPress blog is simple. Just login to your admin panel and add a “New Post” much like you would write an email. Enter the subject and body of the Post and hit “Publish.” If you need to expand the functionality of the blog, there are a number of great plugins available in the WordPress Plugins directory.

Video: Episode 5 Blogging for Business – Content Creation

Steinar — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 23:47:50 +0000

In my last video we talked about blogging search engine optimization and today let’s spend a few minutes thinking about creating content.

Setting SMART Goals for your 2011 Internet Marketing Strategy

Steinar — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 21:00:16 +0000

Setting SMART goals is a proven approach to achieving success more quickly. As 2010 winds down, this is the perfect opportunity to examine your goals for 2011 and apply the SMART mnemonic or acronym to increase the likelihood your goals are met.

SMART stands for:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Timely

Free Template Downloads:

Specific

You want to clearly define your goals to articulate specifically what you are trying to achieve. The question is what, how and why are you striving toward this goal?

What are you going to do? Use action words, such as create, sell, manage, or grow, etc. to bring a sense of energy to your goals.
Why are you doing this? What is the ultimate outcome? Why is this important and what impact will this have on you, your business, or your customers?
How are you going to do this? What are the sub-goals or action steps that will enable you to achieve your goal

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

What’s your experience setting goals for the new year? Do you use the SMART mnemonic?

Video: Episode 4 Blogging for Business – Intro to Search Engine Optimization

Steinar — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:38:30 +0000

In our last video we talked about planning for your blog. In this video I provide a brief introduction and overview of search engine optimization (SEO) as it relates to blogging.

Search engine optimization is all of the on-page and off-page tactics you can do to drive traffic to your site when people search on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other popular search engines. The tactics we use can help maximize your exposure on those search engines.

On-page optimization is all the things you can do on your blog to help search engines know what your website is about. There’s coding you can do behind the scenes and optimization you can do with the content itself. For example, you want to include keywords throughout your site so readers and search engines can index your site for the appropriate words.

Off-site optimization is all the things you can do outside your site to maximize indexing and traffic. For example, submitting your RSS feed to feed aggregators, submitting your sitemap, and getting backlinks from other high PageRank sites.

The most popular blogging platforms support SEO to some degree and provide tools to help make it easier. The key at this point is to write great content.

In the next video we’ll discuss content creation and how to get started writing!

Video: A few words on the importance of video as a marketing channel for your business

Steinar — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:33:31 +0000

Obviously, I love video. It’s a great marketing channel for your business and is increasingly expected at some level by website visitors.

Video: Episode 3 Blogging for Business – Effective Blog Planning

Steinar — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:55:13 +0000

In the previous episode, I discussed establishing the direction for your blog. In this video we discuss the importance of effective blog planning to get you started on the right foot.

The first issue is the name of your blog including, your industry, your competition and your domain name. Try checking out register.com to see what’s available. Also, try a brainstorming exercise to think of all the possible combination of keywords you could use to name your blog.

The second consideration in planning is think about what topics you’re going to discuss on your blog. I recommend you start out with a pretty well defined niche and broaden from there, rather than trying to boil the ocean. The more focused your topics are the more likely you are to draw in and retain readers. It’s OK to get off-topic periodically as long as it somehow ties back into the main theme of your blog. A good place to start is to ask yourself “what are the five questions people always ask me and what are the five questions people should be asking me?”

Third, is the frequency. How often are you going to update your blog. How much time and energy to you have. What can your audience tolerate? If they’re used to consuming content on a weekly basis, don’t try to overwhelm them a daily blog post. Find a frequency that matches both your capacity and your readers’ expectations.

Fourth, is your style or voice. This takes time to develop, but consider how your audience will react to how you present yourself and what you say. Are you going to take a serious, formal approach or something more casual? What types of media are you going to share on your blog – text, images, video, audio? How will your style differentiate your blog and reinforce your message? We all have different teaching and learning style so try to identify what makes you comfortable and serves as an effective communication style for your audience.

In our next video, we’ll discuss search engine optimization for your blog at a high level.

What do you think? Are these helpful tips for blog planning? What questions do you have?

Video: Episode 2 – Blogging for Business – Establishing the Direction for Your Blog

Steinar — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:57:11 +0000

In this video I discuss establishing a direction for your blog. It’s important up front to think about the following elements of a sound foundation:

1) Target Audience. Who are you speaking to, who is your ideal reader, and what are their habits for consuming content online? Are they men, women, young, old? Do they want detailed information or are they looking for quick answers? Do they spend a lot of time online, such as regular Facebook users? Answering these questions early will help position your blog for success.

2) Monetization. Blogs are a great platform to sell products either directly or indirectly. Things to consider include how you’ll actually facilitate the selling process. Will you host the ecommerce platform within your site or use third party tools to enable the selling process. Blogging takes time, so think about the sales funnel and how your blog can help drive sales.

3) Branding. How will your blog support and reinforce your branding both on and offline. How will your theme reinforce your brand? How does your messaging help build your brand?

Taking these three elements into consideration will help build a solid foundation for establishing the right direction for your blog.

In the next video, we’ll discuss effective planning for your blog.

What do you think?

Video: Episode 1 – Introduction to Blogging for Business

Steinar — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 01:31:44 +0000

In this video, I introduce you to a new video series on Blogging for Business. It’s going to be an educational series that covers the basic of blogging from strategy and setup to maintenance and marketing.

Subscribe to my blog off to the right to be notified when new episodes are available. In my next video, I discuss Establishing the Direction for your Blog.

Video: Intro to New Video Series on Blogging

Steinar — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 18:56:45 +0000

If you spend much time on the web, you know that online video is a dominant channel with which people communicate and share information these days. In this video I’m testing out some new equipment and introduce you to a new video series I’m launching on blogging.

After blogging for 10 years, I find it’s time to share my experience and tips to help you succeed with your blog. I’ve done this informally for years, but recently I’ve had several requests to package this content into something more organized that folks can follow step-by-step.

I’ll cover a host of topics including: strategy, setup, tools, seo, consistency, community, and how to leverage social media to drive traffic and conversation. It’ll be fun and educational so stay tuned for the official launch coming soon.

The best way to get notified is to join my mailing list above.

Engage your readers with mini-series of blog posts

Steinar — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:27:44 +0000

Bloggers can learn some good strategies for engaging readers by imitating tactics used by some of the most successful authors. One tactic I’ve found useful is to write posts or publish videos in a mini-series.

Writing in a series builds anticipation among readers and help you organize you thoughts.

Write a series. All of these writers have a series of books, some of them have multiple series with protagonists that people get to know and are keen to read the next installment about. Remember, it may take you a year to write a book, but it takes a real fan about 5 hours to read it. Then they want the next one! If you can hook people into your series, you will sell the rest of them to that reader and the books will keep selling.

What Do The Most Highly Paid Authors Have In Common? | The Creative Penn.

For example, if you’re blogging about staging your home you might write a four part series of posts that cover 1) staging basics, 2) staging on a budget, 3) hiring a professional stager and 4) staging your home for photography.

Blogging in a series takes some additional effort upfront but the long term benefits far out way the traditional, shoot-from-the-hip approach.

What do you think? Have you tried blogging using this approach?

Great Website Conversion Tips – 101 Ways to Make More Sales Online

Steinar — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:58:43 +0000

As usual, Sonia presents a thoughtful piece – this time on website sales conversion. This article hits home as the more clients I speak with, the more I hear the need to drive real leads and close more business online. This is especially true as more businesses incorporate social media into their strategy and need to define a clear path to revenue generation with a measurable ROI.

If you’re trying to make money online, sooner or later you have to face it. Conversion. That intimidating topic: how to get more buyers from the same amount of traffic.

The only reason conversion is intimidating is that there are a lot of places you can go astray. Most of them aren’t that hard to fix, but any one of a thousand little problems can keep you from getting the conversion you should have.

101 Ways to Make More Sales Online.

What do you think? Are there some steps here that make sense for you? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Two killer Facebook Page strategies to target specific users. This is good stuff!!!

Steinar — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:33:53 +0000

Facebook Pages are a great way to engage your target market online and here are two great tactics to more specifically target individual users or groups within your niche.

Listen or Download

Mentions in Facebook Page Updates

Mentioning others in your Facebook Page updates is a great way to gain significant exposure for your page. If the other Page’s setting include “Others” then your update will appear on their Page. Why is this so special? Because most folks don’t know this is possible and simply put comments on other Pages’ Walls using their personal profile – not good if your running a business Facebook Page marketing campaign.

1. Become a Fan or Like another page in which you would like to get some exposure

2. In your Facebook Page update use the “@” symbol and pick the name of that Page (or individual) from the dropdown menu that appears

3. Write something flattering or worthy of sharing. You do not want to spam the other Page. If you write something nice that their followers find valuable then it’s a win-win situation.

4. Depending on the setup used by the target Page, your update will either appear directly on their Wall or in a hidden portion of their Wall. To see posts by “others” click on the “filter” link at the top of the Wall.

Geo-targeting in Facebook Page Updates

Geo-targeting is great if you have a broad audience but would only like to speak to a specific portion. For example, you may have a shipping offer only good in the US or a discount only for Chicago residents. Facebook lets you specify who will see you update based on location and language. Very powerful stuff!

To do this simply select the “Custom” link in the lower right hand corner of the update field next to the Share button. Input your Location and/or Language criteria and that’s it. Enjoy!

Any other tips you have for targeting specific users with Facebook Pages? Would love to hear your thoughts!

7 Tools to Increase Social Media Efficiency and Save A Ton of Time

Steinar — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:14:33 +0000

Nearly everyone agrees that social media is a great way to reach and communicate with your market online. Weather it’s through Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, direct access to your target market has never been easier. The challenge, of course, is finding the time and resources to make the process efficient and effective. Following is my list of 7 Tools to Increase Social Media Efficiency:

1. Google Reader

This one might not be so obvious, but Google Reader is a great tool for market intelligence and brand management when it comes to social media. Basically, Google Reader allow you to subscribe to the RSS feeds on other websites, blogs, Facebook Pages and Twitter Searches that you want to track or find relevant to your market niche. You can also subscribe to Google Blog or News results containing your name, product or brand. Finally, sign up for BackTweets and track Twitter updates that link to your content.

Now you have a powerful one-stop-shop for getting up to speed on the latest news, trends, and brand mentions in your niche. Now, use this for inspiration in your next blog post, reply to people’s comments about you, and share links with your social network.

Congratulations! You just saved hours a week by setting up a proper system that pushes your content to you!

2. WordPress “Press This”

“Press This” is a often overlooked bookmarklet that comes with every WordPress blog. Essentially, it allows you to highlight text on a website and then easily quote the content in a blog post. So instead of copying and pasting text and links back and forth between a webpage and your WordPress post editor, you can now do it with the single click of a button. This is a huge time saver!!

3. Ping.fm

If you’re like most people using social media today you have accounts on multiple social media networks. Ping.fm allows you to update multiple platforms at once without having to go to each individual account. The beauty of this system is that you have central control over how information is distributed.

For example, when this blog post is published, Ping.fm will automatically send a link to Twitter, Facebook, linkedIn, and Delicious. If at any point I decide to change my distribution strategy all I only have to login to my Ping.fm account and make the changes there. This is much more efficient than re-routing my content on each individual network.

4. Smart Phone (iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, etc)

Today’s smart phones provide users with many of the same capabilities available to them on a laptop or desktop computer. However, most smart phones also have cameras and GPS capabilities that add visual interest and location-based information to your social media updates. The tools are so easy to use that literally within less than 60 seconds you can take a picture of something, tag your location, and update all of your networks with just a few clicks.

To do this from your desktop or laptop computer would take considerably longer and would be virtually impossible to complete using a standard cell phone.

5. TweetDeck or Hootsuite

Tweetdeck and Hootsuite suite are two applications that allow you to control your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn updates from one single location. This is very helpful because you no longer need to log into each individual account to post an update or to see what others have to say. Another great feature of these services is the ability to schedule or timestamp your updates for future release.

For example, if you knew that next week you were going to be announcing a new product, you could schedule your updates over the course of the next few days all at once to correspond with the upcoming product launch. This saves you the time and hassle of manually updating your accounts every day with Marketing copy you already have available now.

6. InstaPaper

InstaPaper is a free and very simple online tool that allows you to save a webpage or article for later reference. Rather than printing the article or saving it to your bookmarks or favorites where he can easily get lost, InstaPaper keeps everything organized and accessible across multiple devices by storing information in the cloud. This is particularly important if you don’t have time to read the article now and/or you would like to reference the article in an upcoming blog post.

For example, I can save something using the InstaPaper bookmarklet on my iMac desktop and it will be instantly available for viewing and sharing within my iPad InstaPaper App. Dozens of third-party applications are supported and the functionality continues to expand, so check out InstaPaper when you get a chance.

7. Posterous

Posterous is a terrific blogging platform of sorts that allows you to easily capture text, images & audio and then share this content across multiple social media networks automatically. The real differentiator is that you can e-mail content to your Posterous account, and it will use a smart filtering process to determine where and how that content is posted on your blog.

For example, you just took a picture on your cellphone and would like to post it to your Posterous account, but you would also like that picture to get posted to your Flickr account at the same time. In this case, you would e-mail your picture from your phone to Flickr@Posterous.com and Posterous would take care of the rest. Again, trying to do this manually would take considerably longer.

There are so many other tools and approaches that you could incorporate into your process to increase your social media efficiency. I hope you learned at least one new idea in this post. What other tools are you using that help make your social media life easier?

3 Reasons Why You Should Blog

Steinar — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:43:36 +0000

Believe it or not, some businesses spend a lot of money building fancy websites and pay-per-click advertising network but still do not blog. This might not be such a bad thing if they have endless financial resources but for those looking for a long-term position in search engines and influence online, there are several reasons to blog.

Blogging helps your business in several ways:

1. Sharing your Knowledge. Blogging allows you to share relevant information online in a controlled environment. We all have something to share and rather than repeat yourself each time you meet a new client, blogging is a great way to catalog your ideas and use them for future reference. It also helps you organize your thoughts and stay up to date with the current trends within your niche.

2. Controlling Your Content. You own your blog so you are in control of how it is displayed and who can see or comment on your content. It’s fine to post content on other sites, but at the end of the day those sites might go away, increase fees for access, or change the way they share information.

3. Driving Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engines like websites that have fresh content on a regular basis. Blogging enables you to easily update your content so it is consistently fresh. Using keywords and other SEO techniques in your copy will also help drive search engine indexing.

That’s just three reasons to blog – there are many more. What do you think? If you’re not blogging, why?

More Evidence that Social Media is Critical to Online Business Strategy

Steinar — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:14:33 +0000

I help companies map out their Internet marketing strategies and one component is often the use of social media. A common response is that their customers do not use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I often argue this point, given the growing numbers and expanding demographics of those using social media.

Currently, three quarters of Internet users worldwide visit a social network or blog when they go online — that’s a 24% increase over last year.

Joe Average (the international version) spends 66% more time on these sites than he did a year ago — for example, your average user spent 6 hours on these sites in April 2010, while last year he spent 3 hours, 31 minutes.

Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia make an appearance among the world’s most popular brands.

via How the World Is Spending Its Time Online [STATS]

If your company is considering social media as a tool to reach your market online, engage with existing customers, or expand your brand to connect with new prospects, I recommend you get started with three platforms: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Facebook is the leading online social network with over 500M users. Facebook Pages are a great way for a business to leverage this volume. Pages can be custom branded to fit within your other online assets and provide an excellent channel to offer a new communications channel to your online community.

Twitter is the leading microblogging platform. Currently Google indexes Twitter content into their “Updates” results and it’s believe to provide future value in how search engines determine webpage rank. In other words, if you’re engaged with customers on Twitter, it’s an indication that your website has value and may have some level of influence over others. There certainly are a number of tracking tools that indicate this is directionally true.

YouTube is owned by Google and is the leading online video sharing site. It provides companies with the opportunity to engage with customers using video rather than static text and images. Statistics suggest that video is more engaging and website visitor retention rates are higher when video is present. Video doesn’t need to be a high production excercise and I recommend you take a more casual, conversational approach with video when using it to speak directly to your customers.

Not convinced yet that social media is right for your company? What’s holding you back?

Find Balance in Your Social Media Communications Strategy for a More Rewarding Experience

Steinar — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:36:05 +0000

Clients often ask me what they should tweet about once I set them up on Twitter. It’s a valid question, given that most new Twitter users shut down only days after getting started. The fact is, most of us are not wired to opening talk to strangers and find the fear of criticism paralyzing. We’re all victim to this at some degree.

Hopefully, the following 3 components will help get your head around how to approach your social media communications strategy. Start with the component that feels most comfortable and grow from there to create a complete picture of yourself for others to follow.

3 Essential Content Types for Effective Social Media Communication

Talk about …

Yourself – this gives your readers some clue about you as a person. People like to talk with people so make sure to inject a little about your personality, hobbies and daily life.
Your company, product or services – at the end of the day, if your goal is to sell something, find new customers, or engage with existing customers you must talk about what you have to offer. This is basic, but is a must.
Your industry or community – social media is about community so get involved. Something happening in town you think others might find interesting – share it with your followers? Developing news in your industry? Serve as the go-to-person within your niche for the latest news and share information as it comes across your desk.

WARNING: do only one of these three things and you risk turning people off.

Only talk about yourself and people will get bored or even annoyed.
Only talk about your company and you’ll come across as a pushy salesperson.
Only talk about your community or industry and you’ll just be a news source.

The trick is to have a balanced approach that provides your followers with a complete picture of you as a person, member of the community and provider of valuable products and services.

What do you think? Does this make sense as an approach to execute your social media communications strategy?

Year-to-Date Blog Traffic Sources Analysis Illustrates Content Distribution Strategy

Steinar — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 14:21:39 +0000

I check Google Analytics a lot … probably more than most people … like a couple times a day. It facinates me to see where traffic is coming from and what people are searching for on Google that drives them to my site(s).

My website traffic analyses are typically very in-depth, however I just wanted to share my traffic sources year-to-date for steinarknutsen.com to illustrate a couple points.

Helpful Insights from 1st Quarter 2010 Traffic Sources

No surprise, Google is the 1st source of traffic. I blog regularly and do a lot to drive SEO, so this makes sense. Same goes for image search traffic (#15)
Good mix of social media traffic from Twitter (#3), Facebook (#6) and LinkedIn (#13). I participate in all three of these networks regularly at the same level or mix with which I see incoming traffic. This is by design.
A couple new media based sources, including YoutTube (#4) and podcastingnews (#9). I optimize all my videos and have a couple podcasts on iTunes. Podcastingnews.com picked me up from a video series I did on … podcasting!
I comment on other blogs everyday so that why I’m getting good traffic from industry niche sites like Mashable, Fast Company, and Harvard Business Review.
My newsletter subscriber count is on the rise, but I only just started sharing info with them on a regular basis; hence, Aweber making the list (#14).

So what?

Well, what this tells me is that my strategy is working. The strategy is to create original content in multiple formats that’s convenient for my readers to consume. Not surprisingly, most of my customers come from Google, Twitter and Facebook. And yes, I’ve even met a client on YouTube!

What do your traffic sources look like? Why and what does that tell you about your content distribution strategy?

7 Key Questions to Ask Yourself as a Business Owner

Steinar — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:14:19 +0000

I met with a couple of seasoned business managers today to discuss business strategy and marketing plans to support long term growth.

On the surface it mostly boiled down to a series of questions that we as business owners must all ask ourselves.

7 Key questions to ask yourself as a business owner

What differentiates my business from the competition?
What percent of my time is spent on marketing vs. operations?
Where do I see my business in 3 months, 1 year and 3-5 years down the road?
What’s my exit strategy?
What’s my marketing & communications strategy?
What’s my ideal customer look like?
How will I manage growth and what resources are required to support change?

There are other important questions (lots more) but you get the idea.

Asking these tough questions on a regular basis helps reaffirm your purpose and mission as a business owner. Simply getting more clients, creating more products, and hiring more people is not enough.

What do you think? What other questions should we as business owners ask ourselves on a regular basis?

Repurposing existing content for an additional boost to your online marketing and communications strategy

Steinar — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:56:28 +0000

If you’re creating online content for your business, at some point it may make sense to repurpose existing content for an additional boost to your online marketing & communications strategy.

For example, let’s say you’re an avid blogger. Chances are you have a series to posts that can be organized in a fashion that somewhat resembles a short novel. Heck, even if it’s just five posts on a niche subject, surely it’s meaningful to package those posts together into one coherent piece of work.

Why? Because packaging your content helps readers consume it more easily and the easier it is for your customers and prospects to consume your content, the better.

Repurposing existing content also give you the opportunity to share your best work in a new and different way. It may look the same to you, but for your readers it somehow seems fresh. Let’s take a look at how this might work …

3 great ways to repurpose existing content

1. Create an ebook. This is so simple and requires no additional software. Simply copy and paste your blog posts into your favorite word processing program, such as MS Word or Apple Pages. Spend a little time organizing the content, creating a table of contents, building a title page, and updating the content to reflect any changes in your original work.

Paginate, add some simple headers and footers and print it out as a PDF. Apple Pages has PDF output capabilities built in. If you’re using MS Word you’ll need to use one of the dozens of free PDF creator apps or online tools. Now, upload the PDF to your website or email it to all your friends and fans. Easy, you’ve just created an ebook. Now go create another one!

2. Create a real book. If you’re in the business of meeting face-to-face with clients, it might make sense to make an actual printed soft bound or spiral book from your content.

This could be as simple as printing out your content and stapling it together; a quick visit to your local print shop where they can bind your pages for you; or using a site like LuLu.com which allows you to upload your content and create a true piece of work. I’ve seen some of these LuLu books and they’re as nice as anything your would find at the local bookstore.

Think about how great it would be to greet new clients with a copy of your latest book!!!

3. Create video or audio. Text is great, but what’s even better is when you take your blog posts and create a cool video or audio to compliment your content.

For example, open the audio recording app on your computer (MS Recorder or Apple Garageband), hit record, and read your blog post out load. Add some color to your text or some variation to the original piece for interest. Post the audio along with your blog post or start a podcast on iTunes. Maybe forward the audio to one of your clients in an email and see their reaction.

A better approach would be to record a video of the content. This could go two of several ways: 1) turn the video into a presentation (PowerPoint or KeyNote) and record the presentation with voiceover, or 2) an easier method would be to use your webcam and speak into the video camera while reading the content.

This takes practice and I recommend you learn the content so as not to actually read the words off a page. Once complete, submit your video to TubeMogul and share with YouTube and other popular sharing sites. Include a copy in your blog and your Facebook Page.

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So, there are three pretty straightforward methods of repurposing existing content to market your business online.

What do your think? Is it worth the effort to repurpose existing content? Have you tried this? What’s the results?

Focusing Your Blog on a Specific Niche to Organize Your Thoughts and Improve the Process of Creating Original Content

Steinar — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:28:38 +0000

Blogging is a geat way to share information and connect with people within your industry or area of interest, but without focus it will be difficult to generate content and for others to follow along. Focusing on a specific niche will help organize your thoughts and improve the process of creating original content.

What is a niche exactly? According to the dictionary:

A niche in the market is a specific area of marketing which has its own particular requirements, customers, and products.

For example, in the bicycle market, “mountain biking” might be considered a niche. There are sub-niches as well, such as “mountain bike equipment,” “mountain bike training” and “mountain bike vacations.” Each one of the sub-niches has a unique set of customers, products, and requirements to which you could speak.

What niche are you interested in? Are there sub-niches that speak more directly to your intended audience?

Take 20 minutes to brainstorm your target market and the potential niches that exist.
Now spend another 20 minutes brainstorming general topics to blog about that are of interest to these niches.
Next, craft the actual blog post titles to specifically identify what you’ll write about in your blog.
Finally, Put the results in a blogging editorial calendar as a roadmap.

In about an hour, you’ve successfully identified a target niche and outlined a series of blog posts. For inspiration, reflect on your own personal experience or find other articles on your sub-niche. This will make the blogging process more efficient, effective and rewarding.

What do you think? Will focusing on a specific niche help organize your thoughts and improve the process of creating original content for your blog?

Use Safari, MobileMe and Ping.fm to share browser bookmarks and content across iMac, iPhone and iPad

Steinar — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:53:45 +0000

Here’s a quick video to illustrate how I use Safari, MobileMe and Ping.fm to share browser bookmarks and content across my iMac, iPhone and iPad.

Why do I take this approach?

MobileMe syncs Safari bookmarks across any Apple device you setup with MobileMe and Safari
Safari is a great browser - fast, reliable, and compliant with most of the latest website components
I constantly switch between devices and need consistent access to the same bookmarks
Ping.fm allows you to centrally manage how you share and distribute content. Rather than setting up share controls in individual applications like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, I prefer to centrally control the content from my blog and use Ping.fm to handle the distribution.

What do you think? Do you see value in using Safari, MobileMe and Ping.fm to share browser bookmarks and content across multiple Apple devices?

PS – here’s how I made that finger cursor mouse on my Mac

Define Your Company’s Social Media Strategic Business Objectives Prior to Making a Significant Investment

Steinar — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:49:33 +0000

Defining your company’s social media strategic business objectives prior to making a significant investment is good sense. Like any marketing initiative, you should define what success will look like before jumping off the deep end.

Because social media is so broad and potentially resource intensive this is especially true. The fact is, a universally accepted social media ROI model has yet to emerge, so in the meantime make strategic planning a priority on the front end.

For most companies, that means hiring an experience social media marketer to advise on the logical first steps and help develop an appropriate execution plan. In that process, you might consider the following list of potential objectives, both tactical and strategic.

Source: New Site Media Group

Tactical Social Media Objectives:

Connect with existing customers and new prospects
Listen & engage in conversation with prospects, customers, and industry leaders
Share company information, industry news and “personal” information

Strategic Social Media Objectives:

Grow network (# of followers, email subscribers)
Evolve as a market leader (first-to-know, purchase influencer, trend-setter)

Strategic Business Goals

Grow new business (# of new customers, new customers acquisition rate)
Grow existing business (# of sales, average $ per order, total share of wallet)

What do you think? Is defining your company’s social media strategic business objectives important? How are you coming up with the answers?

10 Keys to Successful Local Business Social Media Marketing

Steinar — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:34:36 +0000

Building a successful local business social media marketing strategy takes time. There’s no silver bullet. Anyone who’s been doing this for a while will agree.

Of course, there are tools, processes, and steps to make it easier, but at the end of the day the point of social media is to authentically engage with people that share similar interests. Think of it as a virtual cocktail party.

Based on my experience, here are 10 Key to Successful Local Business Social Media Marketing:

Determine your goals – Increase web traffic? Increase new/existing customer growth rates? Increase average order value?
grow your prospect list?
Establish your presence – sign up on leading platforms and customize profiles
Engage with your local customers online at their place of convenience – ask & answer questions, provide valuable content, and build relationships with customers, prospects and influencers
Serve as a local trusted resource online by sharing relevant information on a consistent basis about your industry and product category
Implement compelling promotions – leverage scarcity, location, and time to drive demand among your local followers and fan base
Draw interest and listen to your customers and competition by following and commenting on local blogs, forums and discussion groups
Track everything – learn and respond to community trends and interactions
Be prepared to adapt – stay ahead as tools and platforms change rapidly
Avoid common pitfalls – fake reviews, poorly designed ads, unresponsiveness
Above All – Show You Actually Care!

What do you think? What did I leave off the list?

B2B Social Media Expecting Rapid Growth but Still a Small Piece of Overall Interactive Marketing Spend

Steinar — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:38:09 +0000

It may represent a small piece of overall interactive marketing spend, but B2B social media spend will see significant growth in the next few years.

Forrester Research forecasts that B2B social media marketing spending will grow from just $11 million last year to $54 million in 2014. That’s still tiny compared to the total $2.3 billion Forrester said B2B companies spent on interactive marketing last year and the $4.8 billion they are expected to spend in 2014.

via Why Social Media Makes Sense for B2B Marketers – The eMarketer Blog.

If you’re a marketer, what steps are you taking to leverage the growth of B2B social media?

Engage with Your Customers using Social Media

Steinar — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:15:36 +0000

Seems like a no brainer, but if your business is using social media to communicate with your market, you need to actually engage with your customers to make it work.

It would be a mistake to use Twitter as a one-way corporate megaphone, never interacting with your audience. That’s a quick route to an audience of zero. One of the most effective uses of social media is personal engagement and relationship building with your audience.

via 9 Killer Tips for Location-Based Marketing

As common sense as this seems I still see many people get this wrong.

My guess is that 1) they are not using the right tools to make engagement simple, 2) they are just using social media platforms as a conduit for generating links and brands mentions or 3) they do not have the right strategy set up to determine next steps once customers start engaging.

How do you engage with your customers using social media? What works for you?

Top 5 Reasons Not to Blog

Steinar — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:05:36 +0000

I work with all types of businesses and I always recommend that my clients start a blog. It is a bit selfish I suppose, because I find blogging fun and rewarding and secretly wish others would too. But the fact is, in my experience, most people don’t want to blog.

These are the top 5 reasons people tell me they do not want to blog:

I’m too busy to blog and just don’t have the time
I don’t know how to blog
I don’t know what I would say on my blog
Blogging is a waste of time with low ROI
I don’t want others to see what I’m doing

Most people don’t mention the fear of blogging, but we all know it’s there, so we should probably add it to the list too.

My job is to help my clients overcome some of these hurdles – some are technical or may be addressed with the right process or tools. The tough part, however, is to actually get people to blog and do it well.

I stumbled upon this quote from Josh Hanagarne on CopyBlogger which pretty much sums things up:

… there is one secret ingredient to the great blog recipe. And that secret ingredient is you.

via The Secret Ingredient to an Irresistible Blog | Copyblogger.

The point is, no matter how much training or coaching we take, how many great tools and systems we have set up to make blogging easy and effective, if you’re not into it, it’s just not going to work.

For me, it’s about writing and sharing content that I find interesting. It’s exciting to discover something new, see people visit my site and interact with them along the way. Oh, and it drives a lot of business.

What do you think? Just because someone doesn’t want to blog, should they exclude it from their internet marketing strategy?

Finding your Rhythm for Blogging, Social Media and Engaging Customers Online

Steinar — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:38:51 +0000

Whether you are new to blogging and social media or have been at it for a while, finding your rhythm can be a challenge and something that requires continuous improvement. This is especially true as the tools and platforms change in relation to your marketing strategy for engaging customers online.

This is my 100th post on this blog, so I thought it would be fitting to review my daily process. Let’s start with my goals.

My blogging and social media goals:

Stay informed of the latest news, trends and topics within my niche
Connect with other marketers, customers, and folks I find interesting
Share my thoughts and those of others with my network
Deliver valuable content to build my network, engage my market and grow my business online

Daily blogging, social media, and market engagement process:

I use Google Reader to find the latest news and keep my finger on the pulse of what happening within my niche. I subscribe to dozens of news sources, popular blogs and Google searches to find relevant articles, with which I can share, comment on, or use as inspiration for my next blog post. I usually check Google Reader 2-3 times a day for 5 minutes each and complete 1-2 actions as a result.
I use this blog as the main source for content creation and distribution. Creating content on my own domain allows me to maintain full control. Sure I post information on Facebook and Twitter, but anything with substantial content resides on my blog. I publish new posts every 1-2 days.
I use the WordPress ping.fm plugin to automatically share my blog RSS feed with Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and a few other popular social media and bookmarking sites. Again, this allows me to maintain control rather than setting up 3rd party sites to receive my RSS feed. If I ever want to turn off my stream, I can control this from one central dashboard in ping.fm. Not everything flows through ping.fm – only content that I want to share with my entire network.
My iPhone is my Internet Marketing Remote Control. I can manage Twitter, check Google Reader, update WordPress posts, reply to comments on my blog, check in with Facebook friends and fans, snap images and record & publish podcast episodes from my iPhone with the click of a button. Of course, I can also use email and talk on the phone.
At night, I like to use Google Reader to answer questions on Twitter from people looking for help. I have several dozen search queries set up and RSS feeds organized in Google Reader to make this simple. Answering people’s questions on Twitter allows my to meet new people, learn something new, and share content I find helpful.

Keys to Success with Blogging and Social Media

The keys to successfull blogging and social media vary, depending on your particular situation. Here are a few things I find helpful:

Write original content. It’s OK to quote others, but the majority of your content should be original.
Find a frequency of engagement that suits you and be consistent.
Reply to comments, messages, and mentions quickly.
Write as if you were talking with your reader, but keep search engine optimization in mind.
Proactively promote your content by leveraging your RSS feed and providing links for people to find you.
Have a content creation strategy to help define what you will talk about and how that unfolds over time.

I hope you find this helpful as you continue to define or improve your process for blogging and engaging your market online through social media.

Any thoughts? What tools and process do you follow to increase your efficiency and effectiveness?

Monetize your blog by creating and selling a digital product online

Steinar — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:02:33 +0000

Creating a digital information product is the easiest first step toward monetizing your blog. It’s also one of the most profitable vs. advertising and affiliate marketing. Of course there are exceptions.

You may already have a good collection of content on your blog and it may just be a matter of repurposing that content and creating an ebook, an audio recording or a series of videos to package together into a cohesive product that readers can download for a fee.

… the biggest monetizing problem people face if they have a great relationship with their readers is they don’t know how to sell them something without turning them off.

via Lesson #10: Have Something to Sell (without losing your readers) | Copyblogger.

My goal this week is to brainstorm a few ideas for a product, identify content that I can repurpose, research my website visitor statistics for clues and put together a product I can have available for sale by Sunday night. I expect it will be a good mix of text, audio and video.

Have you created a product for sale on your site? How is that going? Any advice for folks just getting started with there first product?

Blogs are perhaps the most powerful online marketing tool available

Steinar — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:56:56 +0000

This quote was too good to pass up …

In other words, if you don’t have a blog, you’re missing out on perhaps the most powerful online marketing tool we have available today, regardless of whether you are focused on dominating one particular niche, or entering multiple small niches, or helping clients with their online marketing, or all of these things.

via My Notes From The Ed Dale Internet Marketing Seminar – Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak.

Yaro is correct, blogs provide serious marketing power. They equal the playing field in many respects and provide a platform for individuals to compete with the big boys. What’s more, search engines love blogs and if optimized, blogs can deliver website traffic much more readily than other forms of non-paid traffic.

What’s remarkable is that so many business owners still do not have a blog or if they have one they don’t post anything. This blows my mind. Some would rather pay for traffic I suppose – and don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with that. Paid traffic makes sense in some cases, but blogging almost always makes sense for a business.

Blogging really helps accomplish several things.

Blogging is a way to express your knowledge, demonstrate your skills and share information with your market
Blogging is a great way to grow your network
Blogging forces you to stay ahead of the curve within your industry
Blogging is a great strategy to drive search engine optimization
Blogging is a great way to control your content rather than posting independent thoughts across 3rd party sites

And yet, blogging is not “easy.” It takes time, thought, and planning to do it well. But once you map out a your content distribution strategy and even fill out a blogging editorial calendar it can be quite rewarding, both personally and for your business.

Corporate Facebook Pages Proliferate and Attract Loyal Customer Base

Steinar — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:12:25 +0000

Corporate Facebook Pages continue to proliferate as more companies embrace the world’s largest social network and attempt to engage their market in what’s shaping up to be a very significant communications channel.

Customers who became a fan of DG on Facebook ended up being more loyal. Although they spent the same amount of money per visit, the frequency of their visits to DG increased. On an empirical scale, fans visited DG 20% more often then non-fans.

Fans were more likely to recommend DG to friends and had an average Net Promoter Score of 75, as compared to 53% for Facebook users who were not fans, and 66% for customers not on Facebook.

Fans had a higher emotional attachment to DG, 3.4 on a scale of 4, as compared to 3.0 for other customers.

via Report: Facebook Pages Create More Loyal Customers.

Personally, I have found Facebook Pages to be a great source for attracting prospects and engaging current customers. My Page has under 100 fans, yet in two months this has translated into 4 new customers.

In my experience, the best Pages have a consistent flow of content ~ maybe one new post a day. With so much activity flying by on Facebook these days, anything less frequent will be completely missed and could potentially hurt the brand. Customers like consistency and if the sign up as a fan they are relying on your brand to deliver.

How’s your company Facebook Page doing? Are fans engaging with your company on Facebook?

Search Engine Optimization: Back to Basics

Steinar — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:00:03 +0000

Search engine optimization is the process of implementing on-page and off-page tactics to drive search engine results placement. In other words, the stuff you do to help your site show up on Google.

Long-tail keywords refer to the combination of terms into a phrase that represents your site, your products and services, etc. Think of them as the words that people might use when searching for your website, company or products on Google. Much like any marketing strategy in general, choosing the right long-tail keywords has strategic implications much like choosing the right target market, niche, or micro niche. The more focused you are, the more relevant you are to that audience.

On-page optimization refers to the activities to incorporate on your website to drive search performance. This may include proper coding, the content itself, a site index, the frequency with with new content is published, etc.

Off-page optimization is the collection of activities you execute outside the scope of your site to improve indexing and drive traffic. This may include submitting your site to search engines and other directories, submitting your RSS feed to 3rd party sites for syndication, commenting on other blog posts with high PageRank to drive inbound links. The list goes on.

What do you think? Are your SEO tactics driving more, higher targeted visitors to your site? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

A popular subject – How to Podcast from your Mac

Steinar — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:25:32 +0000

Based on the traffic, comments, and backlinks I’m seeing, my series on how to podcast from your Mac is relatively popular. The numbers aren’t staggering but nearly 1000 visitors have come here to learn exactly how this all works.

So, here’s a summary of where we are in the series and what’s next.

You can also watch these on my YouTube Playlist: How to Podcast from Your Mac.

In upcoming episodes, I’ll cover:

How to host your podcast on WordPress and publish to iTunes
How to publish a video podcast from your Mac
How to include video, audio and pdf’s in your podcast
How to publicize your podcast on other podcasting networks beyond iTunes

Any other topics you would like me to explain on this subject?

Also, please subscribe to my RSS feed and newsletter to stay informed when these new episodes release.

Measuring ROI of Online Buzz vs. Traditional Ad Campaigns

Steinar — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:21:45 +0000

No doubt, companies see the value in online buzz, but quantifying the return on investment or comparable expense vs. traditional ad campaigns has been tough for most.

Nowadays, buzz around brands on the news, blogs, tweets and other social media that spreads through product launches, PR campaigns, earnings reports are as valuable as traditional ad campaigns. But buzz and social dialogue on the web is tough to quantify. General Sentiment has released a report that calculates the dollar value of the buzz, content, and conversation taking place online.

via The Value Of Online Buzz For The Top 20 Brands

My guess is that measuring social media marketing performance will become more sophisticated over 2010 as companies make significant investment in this channel. Either in-house or through 3rd party tools, measurement systems will evolve so that tracking ROI will become more streamlined.

The bottom line is if you’re not leading the discussion in your industry online, then someone else is, so take this opportunity while the iron is hot to get involved in creating your own buzz. This doesn’t need to be an elaborate or expensive endeavor.

For starters, I suggest you use your industry knowledge and passion for your market to create new and compelling content. This could be a series of videos, an ebook, or a new podcast that engages your audience. Put yourself in your customers shoes – what message or communication would excite them and create a little buzz?

This is the approach I’ve taken with my latest video tutorial series on How to Podcast from your Mac. The response has been terrific and my videos have been picked up by a few influential leaders in the podcasting market. I’m getting new traffic to my blog, comments on Twitter and Facebook, and requests for help. It’s a simple, yet highly effective method of getting your company’s face out there and generating interest.

What do you think? How is your company building online buzz and what’s working well? Are you measuring ROI vs. traditional ad campaigns?

Corporate social media strategy to drive customer engagement

Steinar — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:46:42 +0000

Engaging customers online through social media is a hot topic these days and for good reason. Twitter just passed the 75 million mark and Facebook continues to add 10′s of thousands of users each month. Thanks to my friend Steve Gaines for tweeting this story from eMarketer:

Most marketers say they are at least “prepared enough” to take advantage of new techniques in digital and social media, but more than one-third felt minimally prepared. Staff education and training was a substantial concern.

The largest group of respondents said some of their marketing staff had the skills to implement new customer engagement strategies, but that knowledge was generally restricted to personnel in digital roles. Only 17% said most or all of their staff was prepared, although 37% planned further investments in the area.

“Engaging with customers is becoming paramount and the yardstick by which we measure those brands that survive and those that don’t,” said David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian, in a statement. “Marketers now need to appeal to the individual and engage with customers on a one-to-one basis.”

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007486.

In my experience working with small to mid sized companies, I sense the need from companies to leverage social media to connect with customers and prospects but often the concern over time, resources, and company policy stand in their way.

The misconception is that social media requires an exorbitant amount of time. In fact, with the proper strategy, process and tools in place this is not necessarily the case. The problem is most companies sign up for individual social media platforms and learn as they go, often using the native UI, such as Twitter.com. Some take it to the next level and leverage a tool such as Tweetdeck, but at the end of they day they feel frustrated with the lack of results from their social media efforts.

Start with Strategy

I recommend that businesses start with a strategy for social media. What’s the goal? What’s the call to action? What’s in it for our customers? What tools, processes, and systems can we implement to drive ROI? How will we define and measure success? How can we not only participate, but lead the discussion within our niche. How will we scale our efforts over time? Who is in charge and how will we manage employees’ authority to engage customers online on behalf of the company and brand?

These are not easy questions and the answers will vary greatly based on the size, culture and resources within the company.

I encourage you to look at social media from a broad perspective. Don’t spin your wheels on a Twitter strategy or a Facebook strategy at first. It’s much bigger than that and the tools and platforms will change (remember MySpace?). Consider each platform as a piece of the overall strategy and outline individual initiatives for each community as it relates to the big picture.

Ask for Customer Feedback

Finally, ask for feedback from your customers early and often. Social media is a great way to empower your fans and build your brand on their terms. Loyal customers that buy-in to your strategy will help deliver your message, but you must engage with them in a meaningful way first. Asking for their help is the most sincere form of respect and they’ll happily provide feedback and support if they value your company’s products and services.

What do your think? What does your social media strategy look like and how will you drive customer engagement to lead your market online?

3 Reasons to Comment on 5 Blog Posts Per Day

Steinar — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:56:07 +0000

Creating your own unique content is well known as the best method to drive traffic to your website and share your knowledge on a given topic. It should not be considered work. Think is it more as an outlet for you to discuss what you’ve learned lately or explore a new topic in depth.

Another great channel to learn more about you niche and network with others in your industry is to read blog posts and leave comments as you go. I’m sure most of you read blogs, but do you leave comments?

Here are 3 reasons to comment on 5 blog posts per day:

Leaving a comment commits you to really think about what the author has said. Rather than quickly skimming blog posts, take a few minutes to reflect on the author’s position and craft a meaningful response or question. The benefit is that you can learn a lot about how you really feel about the topic and help determine your personal position on an issue.
Leaving comments is a great way to network with others within your niche. If you’re reading a commenting about something that truly interests you, then this should be fun and rewarding. Much like attending an endless cocktail party with others in your industry. Very cool.
Finally, leaving well crafted comments can serve as a great source to drive off-page search engine optimization. Most comment fields ask for your name, email and url. Fill these sections out and don’t be afraid to include your keywords along with your name. Also, use your keywords in the body of your comment and as anchor text should your include any links back to your site. Don’t abuse this approach . . . make sure our keywords add value and don’t distract from your message.

Clearly, commenting has is benefits, but many people struggle to find content to comment on. Personally, when I find an interesting blog (or anything with an RSS feed) I subscribe to it with Google Reader.

Each morning I spend 5-10 minutes scanning for intersting articles and comment on a few. I repeat this process in the evening. Each day I learn something new and the traffic from these comments continues to grow weekly.

What’s your niche? Would commenting on other blogs help you learn, connect, and drive traffic to your site? What’s holding you back?

The Future of the URL Shortener and All Those Links We Are Creating

Steinar — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:02:04 +0000

Everyone is getting into the URL shortening game these days. Google, YouTube, and Facebook are just a few joining the likes of the established players such as Bit.ly. And now Microsoft is jumping in. But there’s something weird about their URL.

via Fa.il: Bing’s URL Shortener Is Longer Than Bing’s Own Domain.

Seems like every link you see these days has been shortened by one of the popular URL shorteners, such as bit.ly or tinyurl. These services are great, especially when using a social network like Twitter where messages are limited to 140 characters.

It was inevitable that Microsoft would get in on the game, but it raises an important question. What happens to all those links when one of these URL shortener services goes under?

I see a couple major implications:

all your links old become broken
any search engine optimization benefit you enjoyed would now vanish

If you are a casual user of the Internet and social media, this is probably no big deal. But companies or individuals investing in the business of driving traffic online should beware. The rapid proliferation of URL shorteners should be a clue that ultimately some will not survive.

And then what?

Do you use URL shorteners? Have you considered the potential risks of handing control of your links over to a 3rd party?

Mobile Phones Will Serve as the Online Content Consumption Platform of Choice by 2013

Steinar — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:11:37 +0000

More evidence today from Gartner that mobile phones will serve as the online content consumption platform of choice by 2013. Is your company preparing for the shift? It’s happening now, so get on-board.

By 2013, mobile phones could easily surpass PCs as the way most people hop onto the Web. Gartner’s statistics show that the total number of PCs will reach 1.78 billion in three years, while the number of smartphones and Web-enabled phones will shoot past 1.82 billion units and continue to climb after that. This trend will force more Web sites to revamp their pages to make them easier to surf on a mobile gadget.

via Smartphones to dominate PCs in Gartner forecast | Business Tech – CNET News.

Consider the following tactics to make your site mobile friendly:

Create a mobile version of your website or if you’re using WordPress, install a mobile theme such as WP-Touch.
Use mobile friendly video, not flash. YouTube is a great choice and now supports high-definition. Some services, such as Vimeo, don’t play nice on many devices, including the iPhone.
Understand the bandwidth and screen size limitations (and opportunities) of mobile devices. Large images, files and other on-page elements create a barrier for users.
Consider more new media – audio and video – instead of just text. Text is difficult to read in some cases if not properly formatted, whereas optimized audio and video can potentially get your message across faster and with greater impact.
Use a website statistics analysis tool, such as Google Analytics to track visitor devices and navigation. You can learn a great deal about their behavior and tweak your content appropriately.

What are your plans to meet the needs of mobile users? What’s working for you?

Facebook is More Like Google and Why Your Business Needs a FaceBook Page

Steinar — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:25:30 +0000

In December, Facebook traffic reached 132 million unique visitors and continues to grow. Surprisingly, most small businesses claim “our customers don’t use Facebook!” Oh really?

Traditionally, we’ve compared Facebook to Twitter and MySpace, but with its mammoth size, Facebook looks more like Google …

… any comparison between Facebook and Twitter is meaningless and Facebook should actually be compared with Google.

via Facebook’s U.S. Traffic Reaches 132 Million Visitors.

If you have a business how are you leveraging Facebook? Do you have a Facebook Page, Application, or Ads? How’s that working?

5 ways to leverage social media to better engage customers

Steinar — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:31:46 +0000

Engaging customers through social media is not a trend, it is part of human nature. People simply want to feel like they have a voice, especially when dealing with a company they do business with.

This quote from eMarketer reinforces the idea that companies marketing on social media platforms need to take this to heart and make the extra effort to truly engage with their market:

Most businesses have realized that when it comes to social networks like Twitter or Facebook, simply broadcasting content isn’t quite enough. Consumers want companies to engage with them on social networks — not because they want to have a relationship, per say, with a brand of soap or shampoo, but because they appreciate the opportunity to give feedback on products, receive meaningful information from brands, and catch the occasional bargain, among other things.

via The eMarketer Blog.

Simple ways to engage customers with social media:

Actively search Twitter for people asking questions about your niche. For example search “how do i” [insert industry keywords]. Think of other leading indicators to surface questions and answer them directly.
Set up a blog search alert on Google and respond to any blog posts that mention your company name or brand. Include a link to your website or social media platform of choice.
Blog about your industry and your market. Invite customers to comment. Don’t edit the comments. Don’t hide the comments. Make the dialogue open and honest.
Setup a site similar to my Starbucks Idea and invite customers to provide innovative ideas. Make your customers part of the solution.
Reward customers that actively engage with you online somehow. Don’t make it some formal program. Make it a surprise and don’t publicize it. Let them do the promotion for you. That’s the power of social media

What do you think? How can companies leverage social media to better engage customers?

Don’t Stop, Don’t Think, Don’t Edit

Steinar — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:33:25 +0000

2010 is off to a running start and we all have goals we want to achieve this year at some level. Typically, my first advice is to write your goals down. It is such a simple thing that most people take for granted, yet it is so effective.

But then what? How do you get started?

This is especially difficult if you are in unchartered waters or working on a goal that has been nagging you for years. As with most things, consistency helps.

My friend Ed has some advice on this issue I found refreshing. Not that his approach is really anything new, but more that it is easier (and faster) if you do a little everyday:

The biggest single thing you can do to achieve whatever it is you want to achieve is this.

Get a kitchen timer, set it for thirty minutes, take everything off the hook, put the iPhone on airplane mode and take action in what ever you do.

Don’t Stop.

Don’t Think.

And for the love of the DIETY of your choice – DONT EDIT.

Do this for the first working week of 2010 and you will stun yourself with what you can achieve.

via So It’s 2010… | The Underachiever Life.

What do you think? What are you doing to achieve your goals this year?

Online holiday spending 15% increase and use of social media to educate consumers on brand and product attributes

Steinar — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:03:40 +0000

Consumers are relying on the Internet to help them define value as well as actually purchase goods and services. Not only was online holiday spending was up about 15% this year over 2008, but consumers’ enhanced Internet use revolved more around understanding brand and product attributes before purchase. We can already see savvy retailers responding to this shift by deploying Twitter and other social networking channels to keep consumers informed.

via American Consumption and the New Normal – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review.

… and yet, statistics indicate that only 2% of companies are actively engaged in social media.

How to generate inbound links with videos for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Steinar — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:04:49 +0000

Let’s discuss how to generate inbound links with videos for search engine optimization (SEO). Most folks don’t understand how video seo works and once you do, it can serve as a powerful means for driving traffic to your site.

Let’s use YouTube as an example. Here are the steps to optimize your video for inbound links (or backlinks).

Use you keywords in the Title (1st words if possible)
Use your keywords in the description
Use your keywords in the tags (use dashes to keep phrases whole; e.g., “real-estate-strategies”)
Put your url as the very first item in your description. For example, “htttp://www.mysite.com”. You must include “http” to make the link active.
Set up a Google Alert for your video title to see the the video spread and inbound links proliferate.

PRO TIP: Instead of uploading directly to YouTube, sign up for a free account at TubeMogul, which will syndicate your video to dozens of the leading video sharing sites.

For a good example, check out my Construction Site video on YouTube (over 250,000 views) or watch this quick tutorial on videos seo strategies:

What do you think? If you’re publishing video will this help generate inbound links?

13 Steps to Make Every Blog Post More SEO Friendly

Steinar — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:16:16 +0000

Below you’ll find 13 steps to make every blog post most SEO friendly. These steps leverage keyword research, social media, meta tags, and inbound linking strategies to optimize on-page and off-page tactics.

These steps are considered white-hat and assume your blog is already setup with a structure (code, tags, plugins, etc) that facilitates SEO. For example, you might consider WordPress with the All-in-One-SEO plugin, which helps you control meta tags, spiders, and rss to make the most of these SEO tactics.

13 Steps to Make Every Blog Post More SEO Friendly

Preparation
__ Identify your long-tail keyword phrase

On-Page Post Optimization
__ Include keywords in title
__ Include keywords in first 70 characters
__ Include keywords in at least one other place within post
__ Bold keywords throughout post
__ Include keywords in title, alt, and description of any images
__ Include keywords in tags or categories
__ Include keywords in Keyword meta tags
__ Include keywords in Description meta tags

Off-Page Post Optimization
__ Post to Digg with keywords
__ Post to Delicious with keywords
__ Post to StumbleUpon with keywords
__ Post to Twitter with keywords
__ Post 3 meaningful comments on other blog with keywords in your anchor text-based link

There is more you could do, but this is a good start.

What do you think? What other tactics do you use to individually optimize your blog posts?

What is your role online? Participant, Leader, Expert or Guru?

Steinar — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:49:12 +0000

Finding your voice online is a process that can take years. One question to consider when positioning yourself online is: Are you a participant, leader, expert, or guru? Determining your role will help define how you approach your market.

Let’s explore each role to help clarify which makes sense for you.

Participant

Participant is the most common role that people assume online. At some level we are all participants. Much like school, we join a club, an organization, or social network to participate and contribute to the community.

We find satisfaction being a part of the crowd and learn or grow as a result. For some, participation is the end goal and rewarding in itself.

If you run a business or use Internet marketing to promote a business, I suggest that you move beyond simple participation to leadership. If you’re not leading the discussion in your niche, someone else is!

Leader

Leadership is a quality we all demonstrate in some aspect of our lives. Whether it’s leading by example with your children, leading a team through a project, or stretching your limits to break through old paradigms, we all have the leadership qualities necessary to impact others.

Online, this might mean being the first to try something new and innovative, connecting with and educating others on a given topic, or building an online community of people with whom which you share a respectable level of trust, credibility and rapport.

Some go to school to learn how to be leaders, others learn through practice, and the lucky ones are born with it. At the end of the day, leadership is about influence and one’s ability to initiate change.

Expert

Have you worked in your field for at least 10 years? Do you regularly consult others within your niche as a thought leader? Have you authored a book, taught a class or been featured in the news as the authority within your niche? Well, you may qualify as an expert, depending on whom our ask.

Wikipedia defines an an expert as “a person with extensive knowledge or ability based on research, experience, or occupation and in a particular area of study.”

If you’re not an expert, there are many guides on how to become an expert, how to sound like an expert, and how to get expert status in just 4 weeks! Take each of these with a grain of salt, of course. Ultimately, you must feel comfortable and confident with your new “expert” status and many suggest that it could take a lifetime to achieve.

Of course, that was before the Internet and this is where things get interesting . . .

Guru

There is real debate about what defines a guru. For me, a guru is a leader and an expert within their field – someone that not only gets their niche, but has also built a sizable and loyal community around themselves and their niche. They continuously push the envelope to challenge status quo, are seemingly always the first to know, have a large following of people that listen closely, and have the ability to influence how others act on a mass scale.

There on many experts that don’t lead and probably more leaders that are not experts. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just human nature.

Here’s a good way to differentiate Expert vs. Guru: “Expert knows his stuff, contributes to industry related publications, but may or may not have fans and followers. Expert becomes a guru when he/she has his own volunteer evangelists and fans who help spread his/her message.” – Varju Luceno

What do you think? What is your role and where do you want to be? How will this factor into your Internet marketing strategy?

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