Big Bang of the internet world......SMO continues to expand its reign in accord with SE principles
by Rakhi

Social Media Optimization can be defined as a tool to optimize websites so that it can be more viable, easily approachable and simplified to other websites and communities online. It provides an online platform to publicly share your feelings and opinions, exchange views, to reciprocate experiences, perception with online websites and communities. All you need to do is to broaden your views, by developing and implementing it and then vanquish your obstacles and make a meaningful contribution for all the web users. SMO brings inbound links to your website and so are of great value in promoting your website.
SMO helps you to optimize the web content in different forms: Text, Image, Audio, Video

These web content needs to be distributed using following mediums to gain momentum:
• Social Networking
Blog, the most powerful tool for SMO helps to broaden our network bandwidth. Blogs are content published on web (online journals) in reverse chronological order at regular intervals. You can share your personal views related to any topic and also link back to other websites, post comments and feedbacks.
You can subscribe to these blogs using RSS feed. You can build your own blogs, formulate your ideas to express more and then publish your own profile and expand your horizon by linking to friends and communities. MySpace (a blogging platform), the Technorati (blogs search engine), Sneakerplay and Indymedia are well known players in this field.

• Web Feeds (RSS, Atom)
Mash-ups, it is a software or application that combines useful information and content from different sources into an integrated, more useful piece of information providing more mobility to web players by having access to additional information of real world entities. Enjoy the real world video/music on your YouTube (a video blogging platform). Web Feed is one way to promote mash-ups.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) syndicates and organize web content in a new RSS format and distribute it as a feed on website as a new content and notify subscribed readers of any new related content that surge, without actually visiting the website.

• Bulletin/ Message Boards
Message boards are of great help in optimizing your website as they have helpdesk, discussion forums that are ready round the clock to resolve your problems with their simplest solutions.

• Podcasts
Podcasts are audio-video files on internet that can be made available by subscription to all its users. You can upload as well as download your music tunes, audio and video contents and also produce your own film either on computer or media player. You need to target the right audience so that your audio-video content is distributed globally on all sites supporting these features. blip.tv, is a video podcasting platform.

• Wikis
Wikis commonly known as ‘online encyclopedia’ is driving SMO with its rapidly expanding community. It is a store house of information satisfying all its visitors and members with its inevitable, indisputable, unique, accurate, rich, updated content and vocabulary. It is right platform to explore and add to your knowledge base as it gives you collective information starting from origin to future prospects. A member of wikis has the right to add and edit information on own.

• Social Book Marking
The bottom-line of social book marking is same as social networking, starting from subscription, having personal home page and then expanding your network through friends and contacts, difference lies that here we discuss and focus on particular content. Many book marking sites based on particular theme have placed themselves well on this global stage.
del.icio.us: Globally sharing bookmark platform
Digg: a news and content sharing platform
Flickr: a photosharing platform in UK
Webjay: a music playlist sharing platform
Reddit, Newsvine, StumbleUpon, Ma.gnolia, Yahoo! 360, LinkedIn, Squidoo, Wikihow, Frappr, Furl, Wetpaint, 43 Things, Shoutwire, Shadows, Jotspot, BlinkList, etc.

• MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game)
Second Life, an online virtual gaming world is best example of MMOG. All brand corporate players are taking interest to play and win the market and accept SMO as their new market strategy.

Search Engines will continue to have their monopoly but there will be a gradual reduction in the numbers of visitors and traffic to the search engines with the penetration of SMO tools in the internet world.

With its deeper impact on this advertising world SMO will conquer and dwell upon the web.

Author Payal, a SEO Consultant. contact at webmaster@icreon.com

Click here for Search Engine Positioning Placement Services and Link Building Services India

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

Simple RSS Tricks
by John Jantsch

By now you've heard of the whole RSS thing and maybe you've even started using it in various ways to subscribe to blogs or offer your blog's content to others. Today I would like to take you on a little ride to show you how, without really knowing much of anything about RSS and how it works, you can do some very powerful and useful things to add, filter and republish content.

Tracking mentions of a certain product

Search technorati.com and other blog search engines for mentions

Tag each mention with del.icio.us book mark using a tag like DTMbook

Grab the feed that del.icio.us automatically produces.

Just for fun, take feed to Feedburner and burn the feed

Set-up and republish the feed using Feedburner's Buzz Boost Option

Take code to any web and display dynamic real-time update (some CSS styling can help here)

Sit back and look cool - see the feed displayed in the right sidebar here

You can also do this via email alerts by setting Google or Yahoo News alerts for specific search terms.

If you've ever wanted to easily publish a schedule of upcoming event, deadlines or even birthdays as a dynamic list rather than a calendar style page here's an RSS trick for you to use. (This can be done on a public or private page)

Create a free Google Calendar account and slug in all the dates on the calendar (Any shareable calendar will do)

Google automatically creates an RSS feed for your calendar - take this URL and create free Feedburner account

Optimize the feed using the Event Feed option from Feedburner

Publish the feed using Feedburner's BuzzBoost option - lots of options for display

Paste the code Feedburner produces for you on the page you would like your list to show

Using this formula produces a dynamically changing list of events that will run from first up to last, automatically drop events that have passed, and automatically bring in future events per your settings. Now, anyone with access to a web browser and your Google Calendar account can update and edit your events list.

I use this for my upcoming speaking events. Bonus - you can easily set this up so others can subscribe to this events list too.

Delivering Personalized Information via RSS

Just when you thought you were getting the hang of using RSS as a research tool, someone comes along and tells you that it's not enough.

Now it's become ultra easy to use RSS technology to create individual feeds of information and supply them to your best clients. You know they want to figure this RSS thing out but just can't seem to get around to it. So, do it for them.

Here's what I would suggest. Go to www.mysyndicaat.com and create personalized, search specific, RSS feeds, mash them together and deliver customized information to your clients on a daily basis. The current trendy name for this is a newsradar

Syndicaat allows you to easily mash multiple feeds together creating one very focused and personalized feed. (Yahoo Pipes does this as well, but my results with it have been spotty)

So, let's say you have a client that produces tents for active outdoor types. You can search very specific terms and phrases in Google News, Yahoo News, Bloglines, Technorati, Google Blogs, Outdoor Forums, and anything else that produces an RSS feed and mash all the content about your client, their competitors, the industry, specific keywords and phrases, you name in, into one digestible, personalized newsfeed that changes daily. (Don't tell your client how easy this is, just do it and bill them for it - they'll thank you.)

Talk about a great way to get a competitive edge. It's like creating personalized publications for each client or each marketing segment you serve. What if you did this for your prospects as a way to show them what you could do? You can make all this content public or create private password protected feeds. You can also republish the RSS feed and data on any web page on your site using simple javascript or even Feedburner's Buzz Boost and then put it in your client's private page on your website. So now they come to your website for their industry news everyday - you got to like the sound of that.

John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com .

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

Online friendships hurts

Ok, for some of the people who just don't get "social media marketing", here's a brief (and unscientific) case study of the rapper, rehdogg.

Rehdogg has been posting his home-made music videos online for the past year. He gets tons of video responses. People buy his albums, apparently.

Rehdogg continues to make his (very bad but very entertaining) music videos with a large audience of fans and haters. (I am somewhere in between..)

This music video is about the value of online friendships. Most of his videos are along the same line - songs about his viewers and their sometimes cruel responses to his music, songs about his hurt feelings. nobody really knows if rehdogg is for real with his lyrics - but his videos have been watched from 300 - 44000 times each, in most cases.

This is viral video marketing at its best and yet most simple; no matter how strange .... How many people do you think have bought an album - even as a joke? I bet more than we think!

Oh, and the whole video is about 6 minutes long, but you'll get the idea after about 2 minutes.

Online branding secrets: Build a truly recognizable presence on the web by catering to learning styles

by Melissa Brewer

Millions of prospects mean nothing if your website doesn't deliver what hold the attention span of modern consumers. You'll have more back-clicks than you know what to do with. Setting up your own web site is too easy and commonplace - new online businesses, and old, need to focus on growth and innovation - not just shopping carts and payment solutions.

How can an ecommerce-centered business truly stand out? By appealing to one audience, in multiple mediums.

What sets businesses apart is their web branding. Branding is a combinations of ideas, beliefs, and loyalty that people share about a product or company. You can always elevate your brand by reaching your audience more effectively. Let's take a look at what a modern website can do to stand apart from the competition. Online branding can be simple if you look at it through a scientific perspective. The fact is that consumers learn (even about brands) through different styles. By appealing to your user's different learning styles, you can create a website that stimulates the senses, creates an emotional response, and startles them in the clarity of its message.

Building an online brand: Online branding through learning styles.

A website is not just about the text. It's an experience - albeit, sometimes a relatively short one. You simply cannot have a website that relies solely on catalog descriptions and small images. Here's how to get any kind of learning style to pay attention.


1. Visual learners - the TV Infomercial Watchers. (And other demographics.) Visual learners have trouble when a website is cluttered or has too many graphics jumping around, however, they have to "see to believe". A simple approach to this is limit the number of products on your pages - but if you want to embed a video highlight for a specific product you're trying to sell - that product will stand out. YouTube offers free hosting of your videos, or you could opt for a photo slide show like RockYou.com if you don't have any footage. If you are selling services, a slide show tutorial, with graphs and explanations, makes all the difference in the world to visual learners. It's how they connect with your product. Good copy, along with text, will also increase response a response to your online brand. (Product descriptions should include words like "see", "picture", and "imagine" It's how these learners interpret, and connect with the visuals.) *An example: "Imagine yourself on an exotic desert island, with only the finest bottle of Bordeaux wine available on the planet. Would life really be that bad?" Engage the senses of your visual learners, and they'll develop an emotional connection with your products - and help you build your online brand.

2. Auditory learners - the Talk Radio Fans. (And other demographics). Auditory learners need to hear to believe and understand. However, cluttered noises annoy and distract them - so adding sound effects all over your website will send them running. Auditory learners enjoy asking people about their own preferences, and prefer to observe other interact and ask questions, as well. To increase the response to your online brand, you'll want to speak to them. Instead of forcing sound on your visitors, create audio options on specific part of your website. (Testimonials, product descriptions, or weekly news.) You can use Podcasts and other sound files to build your brand, but it's also important to have a decent customer service department they can talk to, or a salesperson that doesn't mind answering a few questions every now and then. Because auditory learners are communicators in general, setting up a bulletin board (although visual) is still effective if you want a larger forum to share your answers with. as far as copywriting - these learners relate to words such as "hear", "think" and "tune". *An example: "When you're thinking comfort, think wool." or "When you hear the sound of bathwater running, think Silk Clear Body Wash. Our luxurious peach rinse engages all the sense." Tell your visitors the words and sounds associated with your online brand, and they'll want to hear more.

3. Kinesthetic learners - the Do It Yourselfers. Kinesthetic learners associate learning with their own experiences. They like to customize and play around to learn more about their world and environment. Kinesthetic learners need interactivity - so once you've added interactivity, reaching them is easy. You just have to ask them to play along. Boost interactive elements of your website - by holding question and answer sessions, hosting an online forum, or adding creative elements - such as tools to help them build their shopping list and suggestions for matching items. They tend to talk while engaging in an activity - so if they call you on the phone, be sure to direct them visually if they are on the computer. They prefer to jump in and try new things - so why not offer online simulations? When creating product descriptions, these learners prefer words such as "feel" "touch" and "hold". *An example: "When you feel the softness of our new sweater line, you'll want to hold it against your cheek forever. Remember when everything felt this soft and new?" Appeal to the tactile experience of your products, and the interactivity they've experienced, and they'll want to strengthen their relationship with your online brand, even if it's really subconsciously.

All websites should appeal to the three learning types - because each of your customers expect it. Rich media usage has exploded because consumers want more - more sight, more sound, and more feelings. When the average Internet user visits a website, they want a rich user experience. By combining your online branding efforts to increase a response among all of your visitors, your website will enjoy a large increase of return traffic. People will notice you and pass on your link through word-of-mouth marketing. If you engage more senses, you will teach more prospects about your products and brand. Correct online branding builds an experience that they will remember and associate with your products - every time they come back.

About the Author:Melissa Brewer is Creative Director at Capital Creative, Inc, an online marketing firm that specializes in building online brands through the use of rich media, seo copywriting, and marketing savvy. You can add her to your social or business network using yourfreelanceneeds @ gmail.com

Your Yahoo Marketing Plan - the complete business guide to getting the most out of Yahoo

by Melissa Brewer

Yahoo is the largest website in the world, and there is a reason for it. It's pretty much the first live web community combined with search engine technology. Millions of people use it for many purposes on a daily basis. When marketing to search engines, especially a monster like Yahoo, it's pretty much impossible to know where to start your promotions. You can always add your website to Yahoo results for a flat fee or bid on keywords using Overture. The truth is, there are many amazing free services that Yahoo offers which can add credibility, and linkability, to your business.

First things first: Make sure you have a Yahoo profile filled out with keywords and a professional description. Your Yahoo profile can talk about your business and link to your websites. Make sure you fill it out completely and use it to link to where you have a presence online - your website, blog, or social networking profiles. Explain what your business does, upload a few pictures, and keep it professional. Simple enough, right? You can get your profile at www.yahoo.com.

Here's a rundown of all the ways you can use to gain more visibility from this marketing giant.

Free Yahoo Marketing Tools:

These are all of the free tools Yahoo offers to help you grow your business.

1. Explore, submit and manage your website listings, free with Yahoo Site Explorer. Yes, that's right - it's free . Yahoo requires some authentication with this, but you can add your website and upload a small text file to your server to verify ownership. You can also track multiple websites (without confirmation) so you can keep an eye on the competition - including how many pages are indexed and who's linking to them. Yahoo also lets you submit your RSS, blog, and other feeds in this section - all free. Check the Yahoo Site Explorer Blog to find out how you can submit your entire site map to Yahoo, free.
2. Add your multimedia to Yahoo. It's free and easy - any RSS technology your business uses will be included in the Yahoo search engines.
   
3. Become a Widget Builder. Distribute an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news widget if you have a blog or website that publishes articles or news. You'll be featured in the Widget Gallery and anyone who is interested in your topic can download your feed widget any time they want. That means you'll be on their desktop whenever you post. (If you don't know how to make one, here's an excellent article for technical guidance on RSS widget creation. Yahoo also has some information in their help section about Widget creation as well as forums for developers to help each other out.
4. Join Yahoo Answers and answer questions in the industry you're involved in. There are questions in pretty much any category - law, fashion, art, entertainment, movies... You get the idea. Every time you answer a question, your profile gets linked to. You can also establish yourself as an expert if you have some time on your hands to answer a ton of questions. Otherwise, it may be best to set your sights on answering one question a day. Don't want to use a photo in Yahoo Answers? You can create your own free avatar on Yahoo easily and add it to your profiles and your Yahoo Answers account.
5. Create a Yahoo Group or at least join a few on the topic of your business. There are thousands of fan and expertise groups that interact regularly by sending out a newsletter or answering questions from group members. Make sure you fill out all of the information on your group and add your links to the group directory, if allowed.(You'll also want to remember to use your signature and tag lines when you post.)
   
6. Create a basic free web page in Geocities. Link to all of your important places on the web. You'll be included in Geocities search results. Add your Geocities page link to your Yahoo profile while you're at it.
   
7. Use Yahoo Web Calendar to publicly post your calendar and events online. You can also set it up to repeat events on a specific day of the month. It's great for sales or meetings that take place once or twice a month.
   
8. Yahoo Classifieds are free for selling a specific item or service. They are a little spammy, though - make sure you don't contribute to the spam by being specific and honest in your ad.
   
9. Yahoo Message Boards are available on any topic. Post all you want on your topic (but don't violate the terms of service) - they are pretty much unmoderated.
10. My Web 2.0 is Yahoo's new social bookmarking service - use it. Add your business links, articles, and affiliate websites with appropriate keyword tags to increase link popularity. (And keep your bookmarks in place.)
    
11. Add photos at Yahoo Photos. This allows your business to share your photos with the world. It's perfect for event promotion and particularly good images of your products. (Or, your business in action...Such as giving a massage or building a house.)
    
12. Add a Podcast to Yahoo. Yahoo allows your business to create and distribute a podcast, and has a search feature based on keyword. Podcasting is pretty popular. Not sure what your podcast should be about? If you are a business catering to consumers, make it fun. (For example, if you sell high-end clothing, you can do a daily podcast on celebrities and the clothes they wear...) If you cater to businesses, do a podcast that sells your expertise (and interview others to get their expertise, too..) If you already have a podcast, submission is free and will be picked up when you send them the link on the podcast page. They also give away a nifty button for you to use to promote your feed.
    
13. Make some money by becoming a Yahoo Publisher. Similar to Google, Yahoo displays content-relevant ads on your website, and you get a check every month. They have strict guidelines so you should have unique, relevant content on your website.
    
14. Add your events to Yahoo's Upcoming, a location-specific site that people actually subscribe to when they want to keep up with local events. It's free and you can even track how many people plan on attending, so make sure to announce it to your newsletter subscribers and website visitors so they can RSVP. If you plan on going to a specific networking event that isn't listed, you can let the world know that you'll be there or join/create a group that meets in real life at events. (Such as the "Web Conference Junkies") Yahoo recently acquired Upcoming, so you will need to register with Upcoming as well.
    

Cheap Marketing Tools at Yahoo

1. Get listed in Yahoo Local. They've syndicated the results so you can be found in more places. Prices start at 25.00/month - and right now, at least, the first month is free. Each listing includes a free five-page web site, which you can customize with your own text, logo, and links using a simple online wizard. Set up your web site after you enter your listing details.
2. Submit your products to Yahoo. You pay based on performance and set a budget like you would with Google Adwords. Whenever somebody ends up in Yahoo shopping, they'll be able to find specific products.
3. Basic search submit to Yahoo is affordable and prices start at $49/year and gets new websites listed faster. You can submit up to 5 URL's. Use it to list your business, blog, and other sites where you do business. You'll still need SEO optimization and incoming links to garner attention and decent placement.
4. Yahoo Campaigner is available to businesses that need an email list. Pricing starts at $10 a month, with the first month free. You can also use their list-building services by buying from InfoUsa.
   

Other Business Tools at Yahoo

1. Yahoo Messenger is pretty much universal, and now it is web-based. Sign up for the new Yahoo web messenger and give it to your prospects and customers so they can get in touch with you more quickly
2. Add Y!Q to your website. It embeds related search results intuitively based on keywords and context. It's still in beta mode, but the search results are pretty straight-forward. It's more search-friendly than the Google boxes.
3. Create a Yahoo Briefcase and allow users to store files and documents online. If you sign up for premium service, it's about $3 a month and you can share your files publicly. Businesses can use it to store contracts and marketing material.
4. Protect your computer, personal life, and passwords with Yahoo Security. They offer a free online viruses scan by partnering with Symantec.

And finally, keep up with what Yahoo is doing by visiting and bookmarking Yahoo Next, the blog that announces features that are new, upcoming, or soon to be nixed. And bookmark this page in case we update it. :-)

This is the first in a series of marketing articles by Melissa Brewer, Creative Director at Capital Creative Marketing and Copywriting. Capital Creative specializes in Web 2.0 and Social Media Marketing and caters to business clients (economically!) on a global scale. Please feel free to add us to your network at Linked In or any other networking or business website using yourfreelanceneeds @ gmail.com.

Professional SEO Copywriting Services - What they are, and what they aren't

by Melissa Brewer


When you type the words "seo copywriting" into Google, thousands of articles and provider websites come up. But how many of them are truly useful? Is seo-friendly copywriting the standard ? Are all copywriters now seo-savvy? In truth, if you are looking for a professional seo copywriter, you're going to need to shop around. There are thousands of seo optimization firms that masquerade as copywriters - which can put them in the lead as far as search engine saturation and rankings. SEO optimization indisputably brings in the traffic to your website. Without it, you'd be lost in the never ending ocean of websites. It's tempting to hire an seo firm to simply set up your keyworded content, submit your website, and let it go. This is a sad mistake for online businesses to make - once the traffic is delivered, they lose sales. A healthy dose of marketing awareness is the true goldmine when it comes to seo-savvy copywriting services.

Look at the work of some of the top seo optimization firms. Do it now. Google 'seo optimization'.

SEO firms tend to be rather wordy - they're pressing the limits of search engine ratios. They know that as an seo firm, their goal is to get a website into the top of the search engine results. Once they've done that, they've completed their job. They aren't there to write sales copy or think of a catchy, brand-building slogan. They are there to help you feed machines - not brains. Unfortunately, an seo firm just doesn't have the marketing savvy to create website content that draws in the essential components of marketing: emotional draw, a compelling message, and an irresistible offer.

Would you ask an seo optimization firm to write your print brochure? Help you plan a script for your tv commercial? Would you ask them to compile a media kit for potential investors? Of course not - that's not what they specialize in. SEO optimization companies specialize in communicating with search engines - not people.

If you are looking for the "sell factor" - that's where good copywriting comes in. A techie that knows how to blanket a website in keywords doesn't specialize in creativity and ingenuity. That's bad for you because those are the things that make your products stand out, increase your response rate, and drive sales. SEO optimization firms rely on keyword saturation - an often complicated algorithm that checks to see how many of your keywords are being read by Google. Keyword saturation is a great tool to tinker with search engine results - but it's not necessarily the tool you want to exploit when you're trying to persuade consumers to truly connect with what you're offering. (And connect with them in such a way that they come back for more.)

So, what do true seo copywriting services do for my website?

SEO copywriters focus first on the message, then the translation to Google. They are expert translators that make a smooth transition from search engine language to customer-centric language. They write your copy with seo keywords in mind (a 2-7% keyword ratio, which is the standard) but they still add style and voice to what you're selling.

A good seo copywriter steers clear of cookie-cutter product descriptions but still manages to slip your keywords in there for Google and Yahoo to read. They know how to build your brand and your company image using professionally written, believable copy. They are the essential component of a true search engine marketing campaign - they give your company a voice that stands a cut above the rest.

Your website has a voice, and seo copywriting services should build a clear message

The voice of your company is the language on your website - all of the words, product descriptions, link hover text, and meta data that the search engines pick up and deliver - and humans end up reading. A seo copywriter will strike a balance between using keywords and promotional words effectively. They don't sacrifice quality for the sake of a higher saturation rate. They want copy that is exciting to read - and pulls sales. They want to keywords to simply be integrated into high-pulling content.

A good seo copywriter will know that headings and titles are just as important to the search engines as the people that visit. They know the importance of bold and bullets to make reading easier on the eyes for your computer-weary customers. They also know that Google finds it easier to read as well.

An seo copywriter is a hybrid of both creative ingenuity and tech-savvy - satisfying both search engines and the curiosity of your prospects. They want results that convert into high search engine results, as well as higher sales volume.

Evaluating seo copywriting services - is your copywriter an seo firm in disguise?

So, how do you know if you are truly working with an seo-savvy copywriting service? The easiest way to find out is to read their website. Many seo firms rely heavily on search engine statistics - even in their website copy - but don't let this alone scare you off. Statistics are how many seo firms see their end of the bargain - the results. Look at their portfolio. (If they don't have a portfolio or links to online work, run!) Read their website text to see if sounds like a person took time writing it - is there promotional language? A call to action? A clear list of benefits? Is the content persuasive? Are their articles useful and worth reading - or do they seem to grind out information in monotone?

What to look for when choosing a professional seo copywriter:

Here are a few things to look for when you choose an seo writer, and why.

• Does your seo copywriter have a portfolio or links to keyworded articles? Does it contain more than just seo-related work? (Most seo copywriters either started off in print media, or dabble with it from time to time. Experience in other advertising mediums shows that they understand how to market to people, not just machines. )
  
• Are their articles unique and compelling? Read a few of their seo-keyworded articles by printing them out on paper - does the copy flow smoothly? Is it exciting or informative? Do you notice the repetition of keywords enough that it kills the word flow? Oh, and while you're at it, Google their articles and see how they rank in the search engines, as well.
  
• Does your seo copywriter have a name? That's right - a name. (Will Smith. Cathy Bates. Melissa Brewer.) A lot of seo copywriting service providers farm out their work to India and other tech-saturated countries. This is great for pricing - but the quality can vary and is dependent on the English skills of each individual writer. The articles on their website should have a byline and information about their authors - experience, a portfolio, an "About Us" section - everything your own customers would want to know about you.
• Does your seo copywriter care about your marketing plan as a whole? Do they offer complementary services - both print and web, to allow your marketing collateral to intersect with your search engine efforts? Do they make referrals to trusted providers in the marketing industry?
  

A truly competent, creative seo copywriter is a diamond in the rough. When you find a person with a hybrid of marketing and tech skills, you have found a true partner in your online marketing efforts. Don't sacrifice your business website to search engine feeders. A good seo writer can help your website - and your brand - rise to the top of the search engines as well as the forefront of your customer's thoughts when they are in a shopping mood. SEO copywriters can also help you create online newsletters, e-books, articles, blogs, and any other copy where words are being used to sell products or services. The right combination of keywords and online promotion will increase sales, attract customers and grow your business exponentially - both on and offline.


About the author: Melissa Brewer is Creative Director of Capital Creative, Inc, a new media marketing company based in Washington DC. Capital Creative offers seo interactive marketing campaigns for small business budgets - that garner big results. We also provide social media marketing and consulting services - to help you maximize your ROI and build your brand.

Mafia Marketing Lessons: Five Things Businesses Can Learn From Tony Soprano



1. Trust is fragile. Whether you are dealing with a prospect, customer, or vendor, your relationships will always make or break you. Tony has always been careful to preserve the friendships he felt were valuable. (However, we all know that relationships change over time.) As a business, your reputation follows you. Your marketing, sales, and after market follow up are crucial to your brand's well being. Bad PR can be a nightmare for businesses - especially when it comes to word-of-mouth marketing. If you sell a shoddy product or treat a customer badly, people will find out. They will turn your back on you if you don't set it right. In many cases, they might move on to the competition. (And, help that competition kill you!)

2. Making amends is usually possible. A business can turn bad PR around if they admit their mistakes and seek to correct their errors. Giving money back, offering special discounts toward a next purchase, and making humor out of your foibles can help you if a customer has a bad experience. Offer something up if your company makes a mistake with a person that has given you money. A personal phone call, a free item, a truckload of wine or Armani suits - you get the idea, right? They'll remember how well you treated them.

3. If you want something done right, hire a professional. Tony rarely brokers his own deals - and when he does, he tends to get stressed by the details. Most businesses feel this way at one time or another. If you own a business, more often than not, you should not be the only one telling people what you do. Advertising and marketing are essential to business growth, but as a business owner, you want to focus on maintaining relationships with your customers. Have others that can market your business for you, professionally. Have others that deal with the business muscle.Outsourcing works, but aways make sure to keep the quality in check. Shoddy outsourcing can turn into a nightmare with no ROI at all - and, in Tony's case, serious legal and personal woes.

4. Networking is crucial to marketing. It's who you know - and who they know - that make a difference in your business. Try to network with potential customers in social settings. Local organizations often host networking events in major cities - check with your local Chamber of Commerce. Myspace, LinkedIn, and Youtube are great places for online businesses to hang out and make friends. Send greetings for holidays, learn about your prospects. Keep in touch on a regular basis. Remember birthdays. Know just enough about your customers that you feel like they may be part of the family - and that it's a good thing.

5. Loyalty begets loyalty, in most cases. (Some people, however, are cut throat sociopaths...) If you are loyal to your customers and offer them rewards, they'll feel more involved in your brand. In turn, they may recommend you to other prospects, friends, and family. You won't win brand loyalty with every person you come across, but when you find your niche, and your target audience, you should protect them at all costs. The majority rules when it comes to your online audience - and when you get multiple emails requesting something, such as more information on a product, take a moment to decide to fix it TODAY. When a member of your audience wants more information, give it to them. Then let them know about the favor.


It's true, Tony Soprano has had a bad run of business luck and family issues surrounding him for the past decade or so, but until next week, we won't know how it turns out. Considering that his line of work is a part of a dying breed, he may be unable to stick it out. However, nobody in the world can disagree that the Soprano's has had a great run of it - and we can all learn from Tony's mistakes as well as successes.

Are you looking to truly connect with your customers? Are you looking for a professional interactive marketing campaign to convert your prosepcts into customers? Capital Creative provides affordable, exciting marketing and copywriting services for businesses of all sizes. (But only if you are ready to grow...) You can add us to your social network by using the email address yourfreelanceneeds @ gmail.com

Interactive Campaign Marketing: Run a contest using social media, free



Interactive marketing is the key to return visitors to your website, no matter what you are selling or marketing. Businesses on a budget really don't always have the kind of resources they need to start out. That's why there are so many pricey marketing firms out there. Unfortunately, businesses without interactivity on the web are sure to flounder, especially with the trend towards social media sites such as Myspace and Youtube. Your customers and website visitors need to interact with your business - and trust it, to be successful.

What's one solution to building interactivity on a budget? Hosting a contest that gets your visitors involved with your comnpany and products. Video contests are ideal for this - they are free and easy to manage using YouTube.

Worried that an interactive contest campaign is too costly or time-consuming? Don't worry - we've got you covered - step by step. Altogether, it should take about a week to set up a campaign using free tools and a little promotion know-how. Your campaign will need a promotion until the contest ends - but the basics should be easy to cover and check on. And even once the contest has ended, you should see a good return in traffic based on the new prospects you've met during the promotion.

1. First things first - get your business on Myspace and YouTube. Plan to spend at least half an hour setting up your profile on each site. Sign up at http://www.youtube.com and http://www.myspace.com. Don't just sign up and leave - make sure you link to your website, upload photos of your products and services, and describe your business and products throughly. (Using your seo keywords.) If you're not sure how to fill out your profile, do a search for other businesses on these sites... (Tip: there are tons of boutiques and bookstores on Myspace, and they're easy to find using the Myspace search engine...) Myspace can assign you a unique URL (Look on the left side of your page under your profile pic.) Make sure you use your business name or keywords when you choose your URL. (Our company's Myspace URL is : http://www.myspace.com/capitalcreative ) Youtube assigns you a "channel" - there's a lot you can do with this as far as building a social network - but that will follow in another article. (Our company's channel is at : http://www.youtube.com/capitalcreative to see an example of how a channel at Youtube will look.)


2. Plan a contest - not a drawing, but a competition. That's right - this isn't going to cost you money, but it may cost you a free gift certificate, book, or other piece of your business inventory. It doesn't have to be expensive - but if you have enough inventory, giving away something free that's of high value will generate more buzz for your company. Plan on at least having a grand prize, if not first, second, and third prizes. For an effective campaign, you'll want to limit your contest to 30 to 45 days. (And when you see enough success, you can do another one, later!) Choose an item you're really wanting to push - in many cases, your customers may buy it if they don't win... Because during and after this campaign, you're going to keep in touch with them.

3. Decide what the contest is going to be about - and what you want your customers to think about your company. You can make it simple - "Why do you deserve a free Ipod"? or use it to help build your brand - "Why I am a home-made-vegan soap addict and I deserve a year's supply of soap." Many bigger companies even ask users to submit their own commercials for a specific product. The key to this contest is to build excitement for your products and company - so ask a question to your prospects that helps them think about your brand and how it relates to them.


4. Create a Youtube Group for your contest. (http://www.youtube.com/groups_create) This is where you'll be directing your entries. You get a free bulletin board in the group, so link to your contest guidelines and your business on Myspace. (On Myspace, you'll get a lot of friends this way. Let everyone know contest updates will be announced on Myspace and via your mailing list.)



5. Create a Contest Page on your website. List the rules and the theme of your contest. Although the video contest will be on Youtube, you'll want to collect their email addresses and the URL of their video either by form or email, depending on your preferences. Link to your Myspace profile and Youtube Group prominently. Let them know that you will update them via email or Myspace. Make sure you host a "Send this page to a friend" form. Not sure what the contest rules should entail? Do a Google search for "contest guidelines" and write up your own.


6. Announce your contest. Every place you announce your contest, you'll want to promote the URL of your Youtube Group, Contest URL, and Myspace profile. (if you already have a Myspace profile, then announce the contest to everyone once a week, using a bulletin...) Who else can you announce it to? Your mailing list. Online media and local newspapers using a press release. Print up fliers and pass them out around town. Oh, yeah - and those free contest websites - there are thousands of them with avid contest entrants. (http://www.contesthound.com/addcontest.php3, http://www.contestalley.com/submitcontest.shtml, to name a few) Try to get your contest listed in at least five directories a week, or even a day, and your link popularity will soar.


7. Promote until the day the contest closes. Continue listing your contest in forums and directories, with a link to your contest page - if you list your contest in just 5 places a day, you can achieve prominence quickly.


8. Choose your winners and give them some publicity. Let all of your entrants know where to see the winning videos - and make them an offer they can't refuse. Let your website visitors know where to see the results of the contest. Offer all the "losers' some sort of coupon or freebie - or another chance to enter a second contest. Post the winning video on your website and any other place you promote your business. Ask winners for their photographs and post them in your Myspace profile as " recent contest winners". Ask them to tell their friends about their videos. Send out press release announcing the winners - and the theme for your next contest.


Have fun with contests - when you run a contest, you build your company's image and brand awareness. A contest is a great way to generate enthusiasm with your website visitors, add people to your mailing list, and achieve brand recognition. Contests also tend to be very viral in nature - people share them with their friends and there are tons of contest fanatics on the web that republish information for their own website visitors. just remember to make it fun, link to where they can enter, and ask every one to tell a friend!


Capital Creative specializes in online marketing and copywriting services for businesses.

Monitoring RSS Feeds
by S. Housley

Measuring and tracking RSS while a fairly simple concept, is really anything but. Unlike websites, RSS have the added caveat of potential syndication, making accurate tracking a challenge to anyone but the extremely tech savvy.

It is not unrealistic for marketers to want to know how many subscribers they have, which items in their feeds attract the most interest, or how many click-throughs are generated as a result of an RSS feed.

There are a number of 3rd party providers who focus on tracking the consumption of RSS feeds. Some solutions are rudimentary but likely sufficient for a small business testing the waters with RSS. Other RSS tracking solutions are more complex and while they can come close to being accurate, with syndication there is no solution that tracks with 100% accuracy.

Techniques Used to track RSS Consumption
Small businesses can view web logs to provide information on how many times a specific file (RSS feed) is requested. The logs and information is rudimentary but will give a basic sense of a feeds success. Many 3rd party tracking options have additional tracking information available.

Hosting
The most common method to track the number of feed accesses or individuals accessing a feed is to use a 3rd party feed host. Companies like FeedBurner essentially track feeds based on accesses. The downside to using a 3rd party like Feedburner, is that the url is a FeedBurner url and any PageRank or popularity associated with the url will benefit the feed host rather than the feed creator. Additionally, no distinction is made between unique views or syndicate feeds.

FeedBurner provides a free no frills service to host RSS feeds and they have been proactive in circumventing user concerns. Recently implementing a service that eases users concerns about migrating from FeedBurner. There is a 3 step process for users interested in migrating from FeedBurner's free service, implementing a permanent redirect, and url forwarding.

Details can be found at: http://www.burningdoorc.om/feedburner/archives/001251.html

Some publishers, who were concerned about lock-in or wanted to retain control of the domain and feed urls often resist a hosting service. The new program FeedBurner Partner Pro is not free, but allows for users to point to their own domain, retaining complete control of their feeds without sacrificing statistical tracking.

The downside to using a service like FeedBurner is that some filtering applications used on corporate proxy servers block feeds residing on FeedBurner or other free hosts.

Redirects
Companies like SyndicateIQ have more complex tracking solutions that generate unique urls for each subscriber. The tracking benefits to such a customized solution is obvious. Individual user habits can be monitored and any users abusing their access and inappropriately syndicating a feeds content can have their feed turned off. The downside of course is that the success of RSS is in a large part due to the anonymity. Users don't want their personal habits tracked.

Considering the venture capital interest in these 3rd party hosting services. It is important to note that their value is in the data that they collect. As with any 3rd party service, it goes without saying that publishers should read the privacy policy carefully, be aware of who owns the rights to the collected information, and how that information might be used. It goes without saying that the value in many of the free services currently available lies in their aggregate data.

Uniquely Named Transparent Images
Uniquely named transparent 1x1 graphics can be added to the description field of an RSS feed. Users can use standard web logs to see the number of times the image is viewed and determine the number of times the feed was accessed.

Companies Specializing in Tracking and RSS Metrics

Pheedo - Pheedo creates tools that enable individuals, organizations and corporations to promote, analyze, and optimize their weblogs and content.
http://www.pheedo.com

SyndicateIQ - SyndicateIQ's position in the content distribution chain provides clients a set of analytics.
http://www.syndicateiq.com/

FeedBurner - FeedBurner offers a full range of services to help you build awareness, track circulation, and implement revenue-generating programs in your feed(s).
http://www.feedburner.com

Each individual using RSS needs to make a decision of the extent and importance of the analytics they require. Realizing that any system they employ is not going to be perfect.

About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for FeedForDev http://www.feedfordev.com an RSS component for developers.

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