Access means Big Change Fast

June 25, 2009 | 1 Comment

Local Knowledge Episode 18

Access means Big Change Fast

In today’s episode of Local Knowledge I talk with viewers about how access to technology for small to medium sized businesses is creating big change fast in local online marketing. I cover easy-to-update websites and low cost online video to how Smartphones like the iPhone 3GS should be in the pockets of businesses like yours right NOW. Access to high quality low cost tools to make websites and online video offer companies with small budgets the chance to participate in marketing that used to just be for those with deep pockets. This is truly the age of The David’s triumphing over the Goliath’s. Here’s the link I mention in my video about the local CBS Television affiliate in Miami who used an iPhone 3GS to shoot, edit and upload his story to his station that broadcast it over the air.

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Posted by Julian | Filed Under Blog, Connect, Create, News, Reviews & Rants, Publish & Design, Video 

Update your website for more leads

June 22, 2009 | 1 Comment

Episode 17 | Local Knowledge

Video Summary: If you’re like most small to medium sized businesses you either don’t update your website at all or you don’t update it frequently enough. This hampers your online marketing results in key areas like search engine optimization and building better customer relationships. In this six-minute video I talk about the two primary benefits of updating your website more frequently and then share a golden tip on how to create content for your website more efficiently and consistently.

If you don’t already have an easy-to-update website for your business check out this video.

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Posted by Julian | Filed Under Blog, Connect, Create, Publish & Design, Video 

Free Press Release Websites for Small Business | Part II

March 31, 2009 | 4 Comments

Recently I published an article about websites that allow you to publish your press release for free.

I promised in my post to update you on resources you can use to write your press release. Those details will follow my commentary below but first I’ve got some useful updates and news to add.

I want to make you aware of a service that LOCALNa8ion reader @trdeeter of problogservice.com called to my attention in the comments section of my last PR post.

The service is called PitchEngine.com and I’m excited to share with you that

  1. It works
  2. It’s free

That’s a pretty good combo.

The heart of pitchengine is their focus on social media. The paid service I mentioned in my earlier post PRWEB has similar social media leanings. This is a good thing. I got to experience pitchengine first hand in using their service for a client of mine just yesterday.  Here’s what pitchengine has to say about how they use social media to change press releases:

“PitchEngine is more than new tools for PR, it’s an entirely new approach to the craft. It’s taking what we’ve learned from decades of traditional methods and stepping up our game to participate and succeed in a new media ’sphere - where the conversation is as important as the message.”

The blog comment about pitchengine that @trdeeter left here on our recent post about illustrates that the conversation IS INDEED AS IMPORTANT AS THE MESSAGE. Without that comment from @trdeeter I might not have heard about pitchengine or used it.

I noticed something else important. In posting my traditional press release last week using the free websites my first article mentions I found that their results were greatly diminished from earlier experiences I’ve had. Out of five sites that I used only one managed to get my client’s press release published (i-Newswire) and even then their free product doesn’t allow you to link to your website, negating any search engine optimization value.

Further, the i-Newswire post didn’t show up in any search engine results for almost 5 days after I posted my client’s press release. Not much good I can say about that other than it makes a clear case for paying a small fee to firms like PRWEB who get your release out on the wire (with seo links) on the same day. I’ll note that in all likelihood the free services I used like i-Newswire would provide similar prompt service if I was using their paid service. I’m simply calling PRWEB to your attention because they have a good reputation and I’ve been happy with my results with them in the past.

The last thing I’ll mention about pitchengine is how quickly their results were indexed by Google. I posted my client’s free press release earlier today and it’s already live on search results. In a word, that’s awesome. My free pitchengine press release also ranked higher than the press release from i-Newsire that was released much earlier. Pitchengine also let me put all the links I wanted in my press release - for free. ‘Nuff said - you need to try pitchengine’s free service.

Here’s the completed press release I made for my client.

Now, let’s take a look at how to format your press release for use in a traditional press release format. Note, this is a free template from PRWEB’s website - I’ve used it to good effect before. Just copy and paste the text below into your favorite word processor and replace each section with your own press release details.

Headline Announces News in Title Case, Ideally Under 80 Characters

The summary paragraph is a little longer synopsis of the news, elaborating on the news in the headline in one to four sentences. The summary uses title case, with standard capitalization and punctuation.

City, State (PRWEB) Day, Month, 2008 — The lead sentence contains the most important information in 25 words or less. Grab your reader’s attention here by simply stating the news you have to announce. Do not assume that your reader has read your headline or summary paragraph; the lead should stand on its own. Be sure to include your important keywords in the headline, summary and lead paragraph. Add your Web address here for a quick link and to reinforce your site name and location.

A news release, like a news story, keeps sentences and paragraphs short, about three or four lines per paragraph. The first couple of paragraphs should answer the who, what, when, where, why and how questions. The news media may take information from a news release to craft a news or feature article or may use information in the release word-for-word.

The standard press release is 300 to 800 words and written in a word processing program that checks spelling and grammar before submission to PRWeb.

The ideal headline is 80 characters long. PRWeb will accept headlines with a maximum of 170 characters. PRWeb recommends writing your headline and summary last to be sure you include the most important news elements in the body of the release. Use title case in the headline only, capitalizing every word except for prepositions and articles of three characters or less.

The rest of the news release expounds on the information provided in the lead paragraph. It includes quotes from key staff, customers or subject matter experts. It contains more details about the news you have to tell, which can be about something unique or controversial or about a prominent person, place or thing.  It also includes links to your website in this form: http://www.prweb.com.

Typical topics for a news release include announcements of new products or of a strategic partnership, the receipt of an award, the publishing of a book, the release of new software or the launch of a new website. The tone is neutral and objective, not full of hype or text that is typically found in an advertisement. Avoid directly addressing the consumer or your target audience. The use of “I,” “we” and “you” outside of a direct quotation is a flag that your copy is an advertisement rather than a news release.

Do not include an e-mail address in the body of the release. If you do, it will be protected from spam bots with a notice to that effect, which will overwrite your e-mail address.

“The final paragraph of a traditional news release contains the least newsworthy material,” said Mario Bonilla, member services director for PRWeb. “But for an online release, it’s typical to restate and summarize the key points with a paragraph like the next one.”

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release (or for a sample, copy or demo), contact Mary Smith or visit www.prweb.com. You can also include details on product availability, trademark acknowledgment, etc. here.

About XYZ Company:
Include a short corporate backgrounder, or “boilerplate,” about the company or the person who is newsworthy before you list the contact person’s name and phone number.

Contact:
Mary Smith, director of public relations
XYZ Company
555-555-5555
http://www.prweb.com

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Posted by Julian | Filed Under Blog, Connect, News, Reviews & Rants 

12 examples of WordPress flexibility for small business

March 19, 2009 | 3 Comments

You may know WordPress as the very popular blogging tool that is now in use in over 50 languages and powers millions of blogs worldwide. What’s less known is the ability to use WordPress to power a regular small business website, even when there’s no blog involved.

Web marketers and website developers are increasingly using WordPress to power very large websites as well. Here are a few examples.

Customers around the world trust Network Solutions to manage more than 7 million domains, over 1.5 million e-mailboxes, and more than 350,000 Web sites.

Network Solutions Uses WordPress

Network Solutions Uses WordPress

Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978, Timberline Lodge is one of Oregon’s most popular tourist attractions, drawing more than two million visitors every year. Considered an architectural wonder, it’s still being used for its original intent—a magnificent ski lodge and mountain retreat for all to enjoy.

Timberline Lodge in Oregon uses WordPress for their website

Timberline Lodge in Oregon uses WordPress for their website

Camacho Cigars have been described as “The Best Habano outside of Cuba” by many cigar experts. Our brands are made with the original Cuban Criollo and Authentic Corojo seed tobaccos grown by the Eiroa family in Honduras.

Camacho Cigars uses WordPress

Camacho Cigars uses WordPress

Just from looking at these three examples of business websites built on WordPress you can see why we love to use it here at LOCALNa8ion.

Central in our strategy in using WordPress for small business websites is the flexibility inherent in WordPress itself. Think for a minute about the diversity of small businesses. There are almost as many types of companies, products and services as there are people - each one with their own unique needs.

The diverse requirements of small business requires your website publishing platform to meet three main criteria:

  1. fully featured
  2. easy to customize design and add content
  3. easy to extend or add functionality (extensibility)

WordPress is part of the newer class of website platforms called Content Management Systems (CMS for short) and it scores near perfect marks in these categories, making it ideal to adapt for any use.

Did we mention that WordPress is free?

That’s because WordPress is Open Source software, which simply means anyone is free to use and alter the software for any purpose. Due to its open source nature WordPress has amassed a legion of users worldwide and that in turn has created a massive development community (over 10,000 worldwide) that write software (called plug-ins) that add functionality to WordPress.

An example of this flexibility would be a plug-in to make your WordPress website an e-commerce store. With the addition of just one WordPress plug-in (also free) your small business website can be completely transformed to sell your products over the web.

This saves tons of money on web development costs. A site that could have cost $5,000 to $10,000 U.S. only a few years ago can be made for as little as $1,000 $3,000 today.

The amount of WordPress users and developers insures an almost limitless supply of online tutorials, how-to guides, video lessons, books (like WordPress for Dummies) and other resources you can tap into to help build your website (like us here LOCALNa8ion). You never have to worry about buying some obsolete dinosaur that no one will be able to fix or change a few years down to road.

So what are some other examples of WordPress flexibility?

DESIGNM.AG, is an online community for web developers that recently posted 11 non-traditional uses of WordPress. If you read the post you’ll see people using WordPress to do everything from running an online membership directory to an email newsletter or online job board.

That’s part of the backstory on why you should sign up wth us to get your own WordPress installation today.

Julian Seery Gude, ed
Small Business Internet Marketing, Website Design, SEO | LOCALNa8ion
Where you are is where it’s at

Posted by Julian | Filed Under Blog, Create, Publish & Design 

Free Press Release Websites for Small Business

March 16, 2009 | 15 Comments

One of the most overlooked marketing opportunities for small business owner are press releases.

Press releases can generate  free buzz about your small business, products or services and create sales leads. Further, press releases have a positive impact on your local search engine optimization efforts. When a website news organization or blogger links to your website it indicates to Google, Yahoo! and other search engines that your site has some useful or relevant content. Press releases are a great way to make this happen.  This is especially true if you use keywords that accurately describe your business such as Miami Florist and then write an interesting release.

One thing you need to know is where to send your press release once it’s written. All your local newspapers (don’t miss the small ones) are a great first start. But don’t stop there.

Below are some good FREE websites that will broadcast your press release at no charge. If a reporter or blogger notices your story on these sites and finds it relevant you could be on your way to free buzz and backlinks to your website.

Here’s the list of  websites where you can submit your press release free of charge.

Although not in the free category, PR Web can be well worth the investment. I’ve used PR Web with my clients. PR Web’s prices range from $80 to $360 depending on where you want your press release to be found. They also have nice free guides on the exact format your press release needs to be written in.

Stay tuned, I’ll post a follow up here on LOCALNa8ion that will provide additional background on how to structure your press release for maximum search engine optimization goodness.

Posted by Julian | Filed Under Blog, Connect 

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