Nowadays diets tend to have a bad name. Overly restrictive and
temporary, they often ensure that people revert back to their old habits
quickly, thereby eliminating long-term results. This year I've discovered
a new way to apply the idea of a diet to a host of goals that have nothing to
do with food. I've found that if I focus my attention on a specific topic
and do one small task related to every day
for 30 days, by the end of the month I've achieved remarkable
things I never anticipated.
Wouldn't it be great if once
we finished all the work of creating a website, people flocked there of their
own accord? I wish it worked that way, but alas, we have to get them to visit.
Here are some quick tips on increasing your traffic:
Make sure your web URL is on every, and I
mean EVERY source of information you send out. (Your URL is the address
people type to get to your website, like www.cocacola.com.) That includes
your business card, email signature, letterhead, footer of your invoices,
direct mail materials, brochures, etc. Gather up all the materials you
mail, email and send out in other ways and check to see you haven't missed
anything.
When
posting comments online, write your website like this: http://www.yourwebsite.com,
not just www.yourwebsite.com. When you include the http stuff it makes
your URL a link so people can easily just click and visit you, rather than
having to retype or cut and paste.
Don't have a flash website, have an .html
one. You can ask your web programmers to see what kind you have. Flash
sites have lots of cool graphics and movement but they are notoriously
hard for search engines to find. If you have a flash, start thinking about
changing it over to .html in future so that people who are searching for
your type of product or service can more easily find you.
Use Google Analytics. It's a fantastic FREE
service Google offers that lets you track and measure your site traffic in
amazing detail. I would be lost without it. You can get it at http://www.google.com/analytics/.
Once you start driving more traffic
to your site you'll want to see how you're doing. Google Analytics will
tell you.
Consider authoring articles and posting them
to online article aggregators like http://www.amazines.com and http://www.ezinearticles.com.
You can draft a piece of around 450 words about your area of expertise and
provide a little bio of you and link to your site. It creates more avenues for people to
find you.
Give people a reason to go to your website.
Offer something free for them to claim and then put that offer on your
business card and email signature. I created a 5 part e-course on how to
make reporters sit up, say "Wow!" and cover your story. What can
you offer that makes use of your expertise?
Implement these tips and watch your web traffic climb
upwards.
Barbara Wayman, president of BlueTree Media, LLC, publishes The Stand Out Newsletter, an
award-winning ezine for people who want
to know how to leverage the power of marketing and public relations. Get your
free subscription today at www.bluetreemedia.com/ezine.html
This article may be reprinted when the copyright and author
bio are included.
It's
official: British singing phenom Susan Boyle's video clip is the most
downloaded in a single week in the history of the Internet. She's
made fans of Oprah, Jay Leno, Elaine Paige, Simon Cowell, Demi Moore and millions
of people who have watched her sing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables.
With a three minute performance, Susan Boyle rocketed from the depths of
obscurity to the heights of fame in a matter of days.What can Susan’s experience teach business
owners?
Those of you who would
welcome media coverage of your company but are not sure how to get started, let
me give you a great tip: editorial calendars.
An editorial calendar is simply a written plan of topics a media outlet
will be covering in a given year. Many of the publications you read most often
have editorial calendars they work from, as it gives them a structure to plan
their content.
In my over 15 years of doing public relations work, I’ve learned a few media relations strategies that can result in more success. They involve a bit more time at the outset, but they can lead to a much bigger, more in-depth story down the road.
Do you have
a life philosophy?For the past decade mine
has been “proximity is destiny.”This
somewhat opaque saying speaks to me because it reinforces a basic fact of the
universe – we become what we think about most of the time.And we tend to think about that which
surrounds us, either in place, time, order or relation.
Emerson
called consistency the hobgoblin of little minds, but when it comes to public
relations, consistency is THE most crucial key to success.Why?Because we live in a world of cause and effect.
You can
hear it every time you turn on the television.You can feel it emanating from those you work with.Perhaps it even keeps you up at night:fear.Fear of our uncertain economy, of loss, of what the future holds.Because we’re going through a state of flux
right now, many people have adopted a siege mentality, hunkered down in a
metaphorical bunker, waiting for the challenging times to pass by.
“What I know for sure is what you
give comes back to you.”
--Oprah Winfrey
I guess it’s
inevitable when working in PR to find yourself in a room with clients who ask
you to get them or their products on Oprah.Nationally, 7.4 million people watch Oprah every day.Her support of a product, service or even
political candidate can translate into huge results.Naturally people are interested in getting
onto that set, sitting beside Oprah on that leather couch, and basking in her
seemingly Midas touch.
Now, in
addition to getting on Oprah, you could also win the lottery, take a rocket to
the moon and lose 30 pounds in 30 days without doing a lick of exercise.I’m not saying these things can’t happen.I’m just saying they are extreme long
shots.Oprah’s staff does not sit and
wait for people to call them and pitch story ideas.They actively search for hot trends or ideas
and then research the top findings that fit their areas of interest.
The energy
entrepreneurs hold captive in the vague goal of “get on Oprah” can detract them
from doing things that can help them build their brand awareness in a more
practical way, such as “send out at least six newsworthy press releases a
year,” “invite my local business editor to lunch,” or “review a year’s worth of
my industry trade journals and come up with at least three story ideas to
suggest to them that relate to my product or service.”
If you want
to get on Oprah, perhaps the best way to go about it is to focus on becoming so
spectacular in your niche, and do something that impacts people so deeply or
helps their lives so much that you become a magnet for not only Oprah, but many
national media outlets.In the meantime,
consider other potential outlets you may be overlooking, that could be a
perfect way to tell your unique story.
Barbara Wayman, president of BlueTree Media, LLC, publishes The stand out newsletter, a free monthly
ezine for people who want to know how to leverage the power of marketing and
public relations. Get your free subscription today at www.bluetreemedia.com/ezine.html
This article may be reprinted when the copy right and author
bio are included.
It's the question you are asked most often, but how much
thought have you ever given your answer?Learn a powerful re-frain to create more clarity and strengthen your
business results.
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