Now THAT'S customer service

Recently I've been disappointed in two companies. One of them was because I witnessed false advertising. Like, really false. (It was an online business card printing company.) The other was simple disappointment because the membership was moving from free to paid. (It was a group for mom entrepreneurs.)

What did I do?

Twittered them immediately voicing my concern.

They both got back to me within hours. The mom group, within minutes.

It didn't change the false advertising. It also didn't change the membership regulations.

But it was GREAT customer service.

And that's what it's about.

Quick Tip Tuesdays

This is the fourth in the Quick Tip Tuesday series about press releases. Our first was about Google Insights for Search, second was keywords, and last week's post was about a Call to Action.

As always, if you have any tips or tricks or would like to add to the conversation, feel free to leave a comment!

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Use pictures or video. To quote Janet Thaeler, using these mediums does two things:

1. Helps to tell your story in different ways
2. Builds trust with your readers

If you choose to use pictures, remember to use captions. Studies show that people are first drawn to a picture and then directly under it.

And hey, if you do it right and use some imagination (and smart marketing strategy), the picture can even be the call to action!

See you next week for some more quick tips for using press releases in your publicity strategy!

Seo Sunday: Linking

To start out our SEO on Sunday series, I think it's perfect to talk quickly about Linking. I'm not going to go into massive detail, but I am going to share an example of what NOT to do.

Don't ignore or decline an inbound link opportunity.

(Unless it's bad for business of course.)

When I had the concept to do this series, I contacted Steffan Antonas to ask permission to link to him. He responded with a yes, and also a, "let me know when you do - I'd like to join in on the conversation". Now THAT'S what it's about (ok, so it's also about driving traffic....), this new day and age of the Internet. Having conversations, sharing content, sharing information. But I digress.

I also contacted someone else whom I respect in the area of SEO. I've been reading his articles for a few years, I get fantastic ideas from his work, and I find him to be quite knowledgeable and (usually) approachable. But he didn't get back to me regarding my request to link to him.

Don't do this.

Incoming links are SO important to drive up your search engine rankings (= more traffic = more sales). If someone wants to link to you and their site is aligned with your strategic plan?

Do it.

Quick Tip Tuesdays

This is the third in a series of Quick Tip Tuesdays about press releases. See our first tip about Google Insights and our second about keyword useage. And of course, feel free to add your two cents worth in the comments!

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To get right to the point, there's got to be a Call to Action. You've got to invite people to do something, to participate somehow. For example, "Vote Now!", "Sign up for our Newsletter!", "Click here for the Survey!", etc etc.

That's the Call to Action. And that's what you've got to include.

A quick aside?

It might seem obvious, but don't forget to make it a clickable link!

Have you had success with your particular call to action through issuing press releases? We'd love to hear from you!

SEO Sunday

I've been coming across a lot of articles lately about SEO and it's really got me thinking about my own site. I've decided to do a bit of an "optimization overhaul" in the area of content, keywords, internal links, outbound links, page titles, etc and I thought I'd bring you along for the ride!

Last year I wrote a post to pass along some SEO pointers called SEO in 3 Minutes or Less. I'd suggest you give that a quick read for some basic SEO concepts (hey, it's less than 3 minutes!) and ideas. Next I'd visit Steffan Antonas. His blog was the inspiration for my SEO in 3 Minutes or Less post, and when I want to learn something new, or am a bit stuck with something technical, I have a peak to see what he's got going on. Usually, he's got some great tidbits, even video!, that help me out.

In my next SEO post I'll start breaking those ideas apart and really looking to dissect the SEO concept and how to implement changes in your own website. Stay tuned!

Don't Sit on that Domain!

If you have just purchased a domain for a business that you are thinking about building in the future, don't sit on it! Make sure you build at least a basic site on that domain with some text about the topic of the business you are going to create - or better yet, build a blog there and post your thoughts and ideas about where you are going. When you are ready to finally launch, you will have already claimed a space on Google's index for your topic and can move up the rankings from there.

Website developers have observed that when Google first notices your site, it will take some time before your site starts to show up in the index. Look up the topics "aging delay" or "google sandbox" for some more insights.

So, don't wait until you launch your business to build a site on that domain. Just build something!

Today's guest post is provided by Christopher Dwan of Radixhound. Drop by and say hello!

Quick Tip Tuesdays

This is the second in a series of Quick Tip Tuesdays about Press Releases. Our first tip was about Google Insights for Search (amazing tool!).

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It may seem simple enough, but so many of us can forget to research, let alone USE, keywords! So just do it!

Find out the EXACT words potential clients are searching for and use them. And don't forget to create a link (we wrote a few pointers in our post SEO in 3 Minutes or Less) out of the words/phrases and make sure it points right back to the corresponding page of your website.

What are your publicity ideas or tips? Feel free to share in the comments!