We Recommend Wordpress for Small Business
January 28, 2008 | 6 Comments
Episode 3: Here at LocalNa8ion we endorse Wordpress as the best content management system for the small to medium sized business. Not just for your blog, but for use in publishing your main web site.
It’s FREE, easy to use and update, has more built-in Local SEO Goodness than any comparable product, and you can use it to power your regular web site, not just a blog.
That’s why Local Na8ion runs our web site and our Local Marketing Blog for SME’s on Wordpress and others like The New York Times and other prominent media and content companies publish all kinds of content on Wordpress.
Did we mention that Wordpress has an active community of over 10,000 contributors? They’re busy year-round making new theme designs that you can use on your site (most are free to use) along with adding specialty features and functionality (called plug-ins in Wordpress) that do everything from power a job board, help you run a newspaper, or make the SEO goodness in Wordpress even better.
Simply put, Wordpress is an amazing tool.
Free Online Small Business Marketing and Publishing
January 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Just what do we mean by FREE and Low Cost?
Here at LocalNa8ion we show small business people how to create content, publish it online using an easy-to-update web site publishing tool AND market it online for FREE (or very low cost). Like as in FREE to $10 a month - tops. Really - no bull.
What’s the deal?
We know this sounds like a lot of marketing crap. But wait!
When we say FREE we mean that if you do it yourself it won’t cost you any money.
If you were to have a chart it would look something like this.
So, following this chart (bottom left) if you have NO time to put our do-it-yourself methods to work, than you’re going to have to pay the Piper. The Piper, aka Local Na8ion or someone else of your choice, accepts money.
If you are willing to put in your own time (that’s the top right of our oh-so-humorous chart) then you’ll only have an out-of-pocket of about $10 a month (that’s to pay for NEW web hosting). If you already have a web site host, as many business people do, it won’t even cost you $10 a month (hence the totally free promise we make on our web site). See, we weren’t pulling your leg.
By reading Local Na8ion you’ll get ideas on how to easily create content for your web site on your own, you’ll learn how to select and install (with one-click) a state-of-the-art publishing tool, and you’ll learn about free methods of online marketing that can connect you with new local customers employing methods like local search engine optimization, online word-of-mouth marketing, and blog marketing.
That’s the deal. There’s no catch. It’s the do-it-yourself model and we’re already publishing our how-to articles organized in the framework we call our local three-phase online marketing method.
Oh, you haven’t read about our local online three-phase marketing method?
Read about our revolutionary local three-phase online marketing method™: create, publish, and connect™.
Room for one more blog
January 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Episode 2:
Is your small business contemplating the use of a blog for marketing or customer outreach in your Local Search or Local Internet Marketing Plan?
Are you wondering if there’s room out on the web for one more blog?
In episode 2 of our Local Na8ion video show I ask and answer the question!
Show Notes
In episode 2 this 12:30 Local Na8ion video I talk about the latest updated blog numbers from blog search engine Technorati founder David Sifry and what that means to your own local online marketing plan. By the way, if you want a great RSS feed reader then look no further than the FREE Google Reader. If you’d like to try others, here’s a list of some of the most popular RSS feed readers from ProBlogger.
During our show I mentioned that I’d find and link to a great piece of content that describes what RSS is. I think the video below from Lee LeFever at CommonCraft more than fulfills that promise. It’s the best content I’ve found that summarizes how you can use RSS and how it will help you. Thanks to Lee LeFever at CommonCraft for making this fantastic piece (I love it!).
Get free conference calls
January 19, 2008 | 2 Comments
Here’s a quick tip to save your business money.
Open up a new browser tab and point it to http://freeconferencecalls.com
I’ve been using free conference calls ‘Web scheduled standard’ service (that’s the free one) for about a year and it’s worked like a charm. There’s simply nothing not to love about free stuff that works and replaces a regular business expenses. It’s almost like a free CMS or free ads. 
Enjoy!
Small business owners can turn to Tiger Woods for inspiration
January 12, 2008 | 2 Comments
Short on time? Here’s the Bottom Line!
This article showcases two inspiring quotes and a few observations about those quotes that are relevant to our own journey over the often rocky road of building a successful business.
Vision, Hard work & Role Models
For this weekend’s post I want to get a little off the topic of local online marketing and publishing and talk about a subject near and dear to our hearts: our small business. Yes, the venerable small to medium sized enterprise or SME that powers much of the U.S. economy and that of the world over. I’d like to take a quick moment to discuss what inspires us, shapes our thinking and our motivation, and perhaps give you one example that I found inspiring today that I hope can help us both in our business. With that, here’s a recent quote from a new father and over-achiever that I found really powerful.
“I view my life in a way … I’ll explain it to you, OK?” he told his small audience in Florida. “The greatest thing about tomorrow is, I will be better than I am today. And that’s how I look at my life. I will be better as a golfer, I will be better as a person, I will be better as a father, I will be a better husband, I will be better as a friend. That’s the beauty of tomorrow. There is no such thing as a setback. The lessons I learn today I will apply tomorrow, and I will be better.” - Tiger Woods, from an interview written by Jaime Diaz and published on Golf Digest and ESPN.
….and this on what I’ll call Tiger Woods’ success ethic:
“But as gifted as he is, I know that every piece of swing that works the way he wants it to work, he’s had to fight for. He basically tells me, ‘You know how to work hard, so you’ve got the toughest part down. Keep learning and keep grinding. And see how far it will take you.’” - quote from Corey Carroll, aspiring Golf Pro and a friend and mentee of Tiger Woods
If you go on to read the entire article titled “The Year of Living Dangerously” you’ll see that much of Tiger’s new found wisdom and high performance is attributed to his father’s lessons, and the soul searching his father’s passing has produced, the ideas it has solidified, and the focus it has brought.
Three things resonated deeply in me about Woods’ quotes.
- That Tiger is always driving towards the future
- That he focuses on learning
- That he works his ass off to make his future a reality (”keep grinding”)
Sounds like the definition of an entrepreneur or SME to my ears. It’s obvious from the story that Tiger has also found a way to integrate his whole person in his game (his business) and I think that’s a key takeaway as well. I know my choice to leave Corporate America after 20+ years to help raise my two youngest kids as a stay-at-home dad while starting a small business with my wife Shannon was the best thing I could have done. But it’s been really hard every step of the way and every day is a humbling learning experience. Can you relate? It’s difficult to stomach sometimes but it’s a sign to me that I’m on the right track as well. Sometimes we just need a little inspiration to keep fighting the good fight.
I’m going to keep learning and keep grinding and I’m also going to keep trying to learn from the lessons that my parents, my friends, my losses, and my wins have taught me. I hope I can learn from you as well. It would give me great pleasure to help you along on your journey as well, whether it’s sharing a tip on local search or the latest Web 2.0 marketing tactic, or maybe just a well earned laugh from a shared moment. I hope you’ll keep coming back for more of the same here at Local Na8ion and I hope you let me know some of your own inspirations in business and in life by leaving me a comment on this post.
The best kept secret for quickly creating new content for your blog and web site
January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Short on time? Here’s the Bottom Line!
This article covers a technique from the create phase of our three-phase online marketing method. Read this article if you want to know one of the best kept secrets on creating quality content QUICKLY on your web site or blog and how this can increase your search engine rankings and attract more local buyers in the process.
Content is king.
That’s the saying that I probably heard invoked more often than any other around the newsroom when I worked for one of the largest newspaper publishers in the world. It’s a pretty good mantra when your business IS CONTENT, as is the case for newspaper companies, broadcast T.V. or radio and other media.
But when it comes to making content for our own business, web site, or our blog, we often strike out before even reaching first base. Why is that? I’d argue that it’s because of an outdated assumption.
For starters, many people hold on to the old idea that creating good content requires talent, and most of us don’t think we have the talent in question. But hold on, let’s consider what makes content good and then I’ll reveal the best kept secret for quicklycreating great web site and blog content.
What is good content?
Most people think of good content as good writing, or if we’re thinking about movies and T.V. we think about great cinematography, dialog, or acting. Sure, all of these are aspects of quality. What the explosion of blog and user generated content has shown us is that relevant information, fresh and unbiased voices, even untrained voices, are often as good and even sometimes better, than their ‘expert’ counterparts. Someone may not be a good writer, but if they know far more than average about a news item or how to fix water damage, or what the best mobile phone is for $100, then people have shown through blogging that this expertise is more valuable than elegant prose or professional video programming.
It’s relevancy that makes for great marketing and relevancy that drives a great deal of how we value content. As someone who wants to connect with local buyers via the Internet, YOUR relevant content is your proximity to your local buyer and your expertise in solving their problem or meeting their needs. As long as you’ve got that - you’ve got what it takes to make good content. Oh, and one other thing that I’ve been meaning to get to.
So what is the best kept secret about creating content?
The secret is that ‘great’ content is already out there, and the web gives you the means to quickly leverage it. That’s right - you don’t have to start from scratch! Let’s say you realize that publishing a handy report or guide is a great way to educate your potential customer and establish that you’re an expert who can help them. Great idea! But when you sit down at your computer you quickly realize that you don’t even know where to start. Since people have already made these kinds of reports and guides before, what’s to stop you from finding three or four really good ones on the web and using them as a template for your own, re-writing the basic concepts and interjecting your own experience and knowledge in them along the way? Nothing - that’s what. We learned how to do this in high school (even elementary school). This is a model that can get you making good content quickly. In fact, the web has opened up so much new expert content to us that we’d be crazy to try and reinvent the wheel all the time (just stay away from plagiarism!).
A good friend of mine who recently left the corporate world to re-establish himself as a consultant in the recruiting field made this very point to me over coffee a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that he’s a very engaging writer, with a quick wit and informative style, he sat and asked me why he should bother to write tons of new content every week for his blog when there is already so much great content already. Why would he be so arrogant he asked me? Just by pointing his readers to other relevant content on the web and quickly interjecting his own two-cents he gets to be associated with that quality content while also doing his potential customer a big favor.
Blog or web site readers often rate the quality of a site by how good the links to other stories and content are. You’re providing a valuable service to your reader (and customer) but empowering them with this knowledge. You’ve saved them time and you’ve connected dots that you already connected yourself that make them smarter, faster. Bloggers have shown that linking to quality content creates goodwill and respect for you from your readers, even though you’re just acting as a guide. And as I wrote about recently about commenting on other blogs, this related tactic of linking to quality content often wins you thanks from fellow bloggers that often turn into reciprocal links that increase your blog traffic and search engine rankings. It’s a real win-win situation if I ever saw one.
Let’s bring this home
In summary, go looking on the web for what you feel is great content. Think about why it’s good content and how you can add your own experience to it. Write your new content in your own words using the quality content as your template. Quote and link to that content to give readers a flavor for what they’ll be getting if they click off your site. Put yourself in the position of acting as a guide and showing your customer information that will help them become better educated about your own product or service. By extending this helping hand you’ll earn the trust of your own web site reader, you’ll save tons of time on making your own content, and you’ll start receiving reciprocal links from other web sites and blogs that can increase your web visitors and your search engine rankings. You’ll help sell the value of your own business without having ever come close to ’selling’ your client.
I’ve got one more secret to let you in on.
I’ve been blogging since 2003 and as you can tell, I’m not a professional writer and make plenty of mistakes to prove it. But as I progressed from personal blogging to professional blogging I found that just writing more made my writing better. No shocker right. Even so, after a while I got more help by soliciting feedback from others and researching methods of improving my own writing and blogging skills. If you’re still with me in this long article, my point about relevant content has been made. You must be someone who values this kind of information, otherwise you’d have tuned me out back in the first paragraph. Probably the best web site I’ve ever come across on copywriting is from a gentleman named Brian Clark who publishes what has now become a highly successful and popular blog called CopyBlogger. I read every article Brian publishes, and I’m proud to say that I’ve been reading Brian from very early on in his CopyBlogger days. Recently, Brian published Best of CopyBlogger in 2007 and I can’t think of a better place to learn how to create better copy content for your own business. I’ll leave you with this quote from Brian.
“Blogging and Copywriting: A Perfect Match Good blogging and good copy share many of the same attributes — plain spoken words designed to focus on the needs of the reader by using stories, education and a clear demonstration of benefit and value. In an overly-crowded marketplace, copywriting allows you to catch people’s attention, and smart blogging allows you to capitalize on that attention by building trust, sales and profits. It’s not about fancy writing and big words. It’s also not about being contrived or cheesy. And it’s absolutely not about inappropriate high pressure sales techniques that simply don’t work. So go ahead… subscribe today and join us for the fascinating opportunities that continue to develop with blogging and other online marketing strategies.” - Brian Clark, CopyBlogger
While you’re at it, subscribe to Local Na8ion. You can subscribe to our email newsletter or via RSS.
Why blog commenting is critical for your free social marketing campaign
January 8, 2008 | 4 Comments
Short on time? Here’s the Bottom Line!
This article covers a technique from the connect phase of our three-phase online marketing method. Read this article if you want to attract more in-bound links from other blogs that can increase your web site and blog traffic and ultimately your local sales.
As a business owner interested in free and low-cost online marketing to reach clients in your local town or city you’re probably asking why you’d bother using a blog or commenting on other blogs to attract new business. Let’s start with doing away with the common misconception about blogs - that they’re just online publishing tools for geeks and exhibitionists. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, you need to think of blogs as easy-to-update web sites that have built in magnets for attracting search engines like Google and Yahoo!. Of course, blogs are also great for a more conversational and authentic form of marketing because today people filter out, reject, or mistrust traditional advertising and marketing methods. 
One of the great things about blogs is their interactivity. This interactivity takes many forms but the obvious ones are comments and linking to and from other blogs. The commenting and linking between blogs connect people and conversations taking place.
In order to increase your local sales using blogs you’re going to want to attract in-bound links from other bloggers. By doing this you can increase your search engine rankings and rocket ahead of your competition in organic (free) search engine rankings.
So how do you go about getting links from other blogs? Here are three quick tips.
- Create good content
- Reciprocate by linking to other relevant bloggers
- Comment on other blogs
Create good content
This rule is sort of like the three-rules of real estate which you’ve probably heard are: location, location, location. The same is true for creating a blog that search engines and people alike find great value in. Good relevant content will do more for your search engine rankings, blog outreach and other marketing efforts than anything else. But this post isn’t about creating content – getting links from other blogs is.
Reciprocate by linking to other relevant bloggers
I’ll scratch your back, would you please scratch mine? Reciprocity and flattery are very strong motivators in human psychology, ones that get us to do things that even money often won’t. With this tactic you link to another blog that has relevant content that you like and the blog you’ve linked to might link back to you. This is one of the first, if not the first tactic, that people used to attract in-bound links from other blogs.
Today, the tactic is a bit worn out but not completely so. Although, getting reciprocal links from major A-list Bloggers seems almost impossible these days, it is still pretty easy to get links from less popular ‘b’ and ‘c-list’ blogs that are highly valuable to your web site traffic. Even a link from a quality blog that is unheard of still helps your search engine rankings in a positive way. This is also one of those things you should do just because it helps your blog readers knowing that occasionally it will pay you back for your good effort.
Comment on other blogs (participation)
This is probably one of the best ways to attract new readers to your blog but it must be done authentically. By that I mean that commenting should never be like an ad. If you leave a comment that’s clearly (or even subtly) self-promoting, look out because you’re likely to raise the ire of both bloggers and blog readers. But when you’ve got something relevant to say that adds to the conversation taking place on a blog, then by all means say it. Relevancy is almost always the key to good commenting and creating goodwill on other blogs. You’re looking for opportunities where your comment adds value to the conversation and secondarily lets people know you’re out there. People who see a good comment, or a constant stream of good comments, are going to notice you the right way and visit your web site. That’s what you’re looking for.
To comment on other blogs you simply search for other relevant blogs in your niche and read the stories on them. For any story that you feel you can add something to the conversation, you type in your comment and post it. Always include your email address and your blog’s URL (otherwise people won’t be able to click on your comment and find your blog). Try to answer another commenter’s question or a blog author’s call for feedback, or add relevant information or experiences. Simply commenting to lend support and show appreciation for the post or the author is also a great thing to do.
All of these actions signal to other blog authors and readers that you’re participating in their community. Do it the right way and for long enough and you’ll become part of that community with all the benefits that this can entail.
Chief among them, you’ll attract other bloggers and their audiences, and quite possibly their links, which all add up to better search engine rankings. Better organic search engine rankings means more traffic to your blog and web site and a greater chance that people in your local market will find your web site and eventually buy your product and service.
Along these lines I read a good article today from a fellow SEO enthusiast Anthony Kirlew that’s offers some good background and tips on how to attract tons of in-bound links from other blogs. The article is called: How 30 minutes a day can result in 250 inbound links
“It shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes per day to find a new blog to post a comment on. I recommend starting in your niche with the goal of attracting similarly minded subscribers to your site or blog. In the process, you will learn of new blogs in your field, find complementary blogs closely related to your field, and get to know more bloggers in your niche, which could lead to guest blogging on their blogs. A great way to find bloggers in your niche is through StumbleUpon, and blogging guru extraordinaire, Darren Rowse (a.k.a. ProBlogger) just wrote a great article about this.” - writes Anthony Kirlew of Old School SEO
Key to building your blog marketing strategy is the one-day-at-a-time method that Anthony is championing in his post. It’s the same way we all build a successful business - one good piece of work at a time, every day. Everything from creating good blog content, to your comment strategy, will benefit from a little daily love. You’ll have a better chance of fitting it in to your busy day, and also in maintaining your efforts over the long haul.
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