It's Nice To Have a Hot Young Woman In Your Video: SEO Brings Thousands to Website

Building Web Traffic with Video Content or It's Nice To Have a Hot Young Singer In Your Video: SEO, Blogs and Public Relations Bring Thousands to Website Music Video

Method: Online Press Releases using Keywords, links from Blogs and online communities related to music, plus traditional PR methods such as pitching the story to TV producers and newspaper editors.

Brandy Rich, an attractive and talented songwriter at only 18, has received air-play from College and Alternative music stations in the US. Brandy does live performances and she is currently working on getting a record contract. Brandy Rich hired HighlyDef Productions, LLC to create a Video Press Kit, to promote her alternative-pop music career. A video press kit is a 10 minute mini-documentary about the singer and their music, which features interviews and performances. These videos are used by performers to promote themselves with club managers and record labels.

Building Web Traffic
When the high-definition video Electronic Press Kit (EPK) and 2 music videos were finished, I issued news releases to promote the music video and the singer. I also posted links to the online video files on blogs, online press release services and music web sites. Proper use of keywords in the online news releases, increased the visibility of the singer's video clips in the search engines.

I also contacted the TV producers at "Atlanta Tonight" about interviewing singer Brandy Rich. "Atlanta Tonight" airs nightly on WUPA, the Atlanta UPN affiliate station. The show focuses on entertainment, so a singer-songwriter like Brandy Rich was a good fit for the show. The producers agreed to shoot the TV interview with Brandy while she was in Atlanta's Treesound Studios in Norcross. The interview aired the following week in the Atlanta TV market. Brandy's press release was also picked up by some online music news sites and the Albany Herald. The entire public relations and Search Engine Marketing package was far less expensive than equivalent advertising time.

The result was that thousands of online music fans from the US, Australia, Europe and Japan flocked to the web site to see her videos.

Using blogs, traditional Public Relations and Search Engine Optimization can do good things for your web traffic. Adding video content can also pump up the web traffic, especially if your original video is catchy enough to attract blog posts and links. See the Brandy Rich Music Video.

Entire business blogs and websites have been built around entertaining video content. The traffic for these entertainment sites like BMW's The Driver series and the Nike Art of Speed Blog by Gawker Media have proven the consumer good will and traffic that can be built with video content. I discuss BMW's "The Driver" and other entertainment blogs / websites in this post about content as advertising.

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SEO Tool Review: Submitnet Tools

Test and Review of Submitnet.net Tools

The Submit.net Tools consistes of a web-based set of useful tools for managing keywords and search engine status of a website.

The Claims:
The Submitnet website offers varied packages of these 15 online tools for monthly fees ranging from the Custom package of $12 for 3 months plus $ 8 per tool selected up to the Professional package of $ 59 for 3 months.

The website offers 15 website tools including:

• Submission Options - This allows automated submitting to search engines. (The monthly option seems like overkill).
  
• Position Check - The Submitnet Position Check tool will search for the keywords you specify on the world's most frequently used search engines and directories.
  
• Positrak - This tool checks on a monthly basis for your websites’ placement based on your selected keywords on the top Search Engines. Based on your URL’s ranking, it calculates a score out of 100 to show how prominent your site ranks compared to your competitors.
  
• Keyword Analysis - Reports keywords and keyword ratios that each search engine uses to index your web site.
  
• Meta Tag Analysis - A simple check for recommended character length and number of key words.
  
• Meta Tag Generator - Generate Title, Description and Keyword Meta-tags of the proper length.
  
• Engine Guidelines - This tool will visit your site and check for possible violations of common search engine guidelines.
  
• Competitor Analysis - This tool shows what title, keywords and other elements, your competitor's website is listed under and whether you're performing better or worse.
  
• LinkTrak Tool - LinkTrak lets you stay on top of how many and what sites are linking to yours.
  
• Keyword Spider Tool - Submitnet’s keyword spider tool will show you in a report what are the best keywords and pages of your website that you should submit to the search engines.
  
• Server Uptime Check Tool - Submitnet servers regularly scan your web server to make sure it is responding. If your Web site servers are inaccessible, you will be contacted via email.
  
• HTML Analysis Tool - checks against many different levels of HTML specifications, and will inform you if your site needs to be altered in order to comply.
  
• Load Time Analysis Tool - load time analysis will test your web site's load time with the most common modem speeds ranging from 56k to T3.
  
• Browser Compatibility Tool - Lets you know if your website is loading correctly for most browsers
  
• Link Check Tool - reviews all the links on your site and reports if the links are working or not.
  

The Test:
I tested this tool by using 9 keyword phrases associated with a website. I ran all the no-fee tests in the Submitnet.net Tools, against a business website and compared the results to a manual search for the same keywords in YAHOO! and Google. The results for keyword search ranking appear to be accurate.

The user interface and navigation are logical and easy to use. The SEO tools,
and submitter tool are simple enough to launch that they are usable by a business owner with little SEO knowledge. The test results are complete enough to be useful yet do not overload the user with unneeded detail.

The only weakness is the keyword analysis tool which seems a little vague in
it’s results for someone doing detailed SEO work. For small and medium business users, some of the terms in the Search Engine Guidelines and HTML Check could benefit from having definitions for some of the HTML terms.

The Search Engine Position Check is good for letting you see where your pages rank for specific keywords. This tool, however, will tend to slow down terribly if more than 8 keyword phrases are searched.

The Load Time Analysis is a very handy tool for keeping the size of web page files manageable.

Overall I rate this as a good tool for small and medium Businsess owners, providing helpful tools without unneeded complexity. I would recommend this tool to business website owners if you want to closely track the web ranking of your web site.

I am very interested in readers who have used the paid versions of these tools to see if their is any difference. I tested these tools using a test log-in. Please comment if you have experienced any serious flaws or great benefits associated with the Submitnet tools.

Please note that I am not associated with Submitnet in any way, and I am constantly testing new tools associated with SEO and Pay Per Click.

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7 Basic Steps in Pay Per Click Advertising and Face-to-Face Sales

7 Basic Steps in Pay Per Click Advertising and Face-to-Face Sales

Some of the same basics of face-to-face sales also work in Pay Per Click advertising. I have worked most of my career in writing, producing and buying ads for TV, newspapers, direct mail, and online advertising. I have also sold cars, computers, TV advertising and my own consulting services in Public Relations and Advertising. The more I think about sales compared to online advertising, the more similarities I uncover. If you are a small or medium business owner you may control your online business advertising and also sell to customers. You can use the things you learn in selling your products to create better online advertising for the same customers.

There are several basic elements that are true in both sales and Pay Per Click Advertising:

1) Build rapport by finding common interests. Never lie to your client. People will forgive you for telling them bad news or exposing a problem, especially if you can solve the problem. But they will not forgive you or trust you if you deceive them. This is the key to the first step in successful sales or online advertising, establish rapport and credibility.

2) Ask questions and listen carefully. In sales, ask the right questions when face to face with the customer and your customer will usually tell you what to sell them and how to sell it to them. It's hard to listen in online advertising, but it can be done. In Pay Per Click advertising, you must listen to the potential customer to find out who buys the product and why they buy the product. Customer feedback often comes from product research, copy briefs, and previous campaigns that worked or failed. If customers respond with questions or problems via e-mail or phone, you'd better listen. What customers tell you about your current products and response to your Pay Per Click ads can lead to more sales. Especially in Pay Per Click ads your click through rates and other report factors can guide you in learning which keywords and which Landing Pages are the most effective.

3) Ask more questions and listen attentively. Listening helps you to refine your questions to find the customer's Hot-Button. In both online advertising and sales if you determine the customer's topmost desire or problem, you are halfway to a sale. The Hot-Button issue is the most important need or problem that triggers a sale in both advertisiing or sales. People usually don't like to spend money. But if your online ad kindles a burning desire for the hottest new tech product or if your sales presentation promises to solve the most pressing problem burdening your customer, people cannot hand over the cash quickly enough. Just make sure your product delivers what the ad or the sales presentation promised.

4) Understanding your customer's basic needs is crucial to selling face to face or in Pay Per Click advertising. Once you know the hot-button issue, tell the customer why and how buying the product will solve the problem or meet the need. I find the most effective online copywriting depicts the product in action and depicts the product solving a very specific client need. Describe the product, from the client's viewpoint, using action words and you will help the potential buyer to picture this happy outcome in their mind.

5) Make an offer: Nothing happens until you offer the client a service or product at a specific price. Don't be shy. This is a crucial step in helping the customer to consider if the product offered is equal to the price. In sales this step may lead to a negotiation. As a salesperson or in your Landing Page copy your task is to depict the great value of the product to meet the needs of the buyer.

6) Many books have been written about the subtle art of closing the sale. Basically, you make the offer and ask them to accept. You MUST attempt to close the sale and risk hearing "No". No is an essential step to getting to the eventual yes. The Yes of a closed sale may come with a different offer or a different customer. But you will only find out by asking for the sale and risking refusal.

In online advertising, your Landing Page MUST make a call to action whether it is a CALL NOW statement, a customer sign-up form or a shopping cart. In both sales and advertising you can not be everything to every customer. You must make a specific offer to a specific type of customer. Take a risk.

7) The customer responds to your product and price by buying the product, or not. In sales, when the customer says "no", you don't give up. Instead, you ask more questions and find out why the customer did not buy. In sales you may answer the client objection and still get the sale. It's a continuous learning process.

The same applies in Pay Per Click advertising. If the customers respond in small numbers to your Landing Page, then it's time to apply the learning process. Are your Pay Per Click keywords too vague or too narrow? Are you vividly depicting the wrong benefits to the customer on your Landing Page? Are you trying to meet a Hot-Button need that only appeals to a tiny fraction of your customers? Don't give up. Ask more questions and re-build your ad. It's a continuous learning process of refining your keywords and your Landing Page.

Your customer's are telling you what they want and what they don't want. Are you listening?

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12 Ways to Build a Better Pay Per Click Landing Page and Increase Conversion

12 Ways to Build a Better Pay Per Click Landing Page and Increase Conversion

A Landing Page is a special web page that is the first page that a customer sees when they click on your Pay Per Click ad. The Landing Page is designed to convert an interested visitor into an active customer. The Conversion of a visitor happens when the visitor orders a product through your website, gives you their e-mail address, or calls your business to request information, requests a quote or buys the product. The conversion is the final step in turning clicks into what your business needs most; paying customers or good sales leads.

How do I know this works? Everday I work with at least 2 businesses that are using Pay Per Click ads. When I use the 12 techniques below to re-write their web landing pages, I usually see an increase in phone calls and other conversions. Two weeks ago I rewrote the copy on a Landing Page that sold freight containers. The next morning the owner called me to say that he had received four phone calls the previous afternoon and that three calls had turned into sales. Most of my Landing Pages don't convert quite that well. This is an unusually good example, but it proves the value of a good Landing page.


How can we increase the rate of conversion?
Typically, we can expect that a Pay Per Click campaign with an average landing page will perform like a direct mail campaign. This usually means conversion of 1-3% of all click visitors or 1-3 phone calls for every 100 clicks on the Pay Per Click ad. Many click ad campaigns use the website home page as the Landing Page. Research and real world experience show that using a specially created Landing Page can increase visitor conversion into customers by 20 to 40 percent.

When customers come to your website landing page from a Pay Per Click ad, they are looking for specific information. The customer probably clicked your ad because the keyword phrase was a good match for the search they put in the search engine. The landing page should be about your product or service only. When people arrive at your landing page, they are already searching for specific information about your product or service.

1. Help the customer find the item they want: Tune your Landing Page copy to use the same search terms as the click campaign that brought them to your website. Having a Landing Page matching the keywords produces twice the conversion rate compared to sending the visitor to the home page as the landing page.
2. Use a different landing page for each group of key phrases. Create a new landing page for each product and send the clients directly to the page that matches the customer’s needs and the customer’s key words. When the customer wants to buy right now, don’t make him search to find the “buy now” button.
3. Good Landing Page copy helps the customer decide that they want the product: Benefits are the ways that the product helps the customer, solves a problem or meets the customer’s needs. When your visitor lands on your page, he or she is likely to have the thought “What’s in it for me?” You must be able to immediately show the customer how your product meets his needs.
4. Add a headline that helps the customer see how the product helps them. Add 2 or 3 benefits, below the headline, that also show the customer the value of the product.
5. Make it easy for the customer to buy the product: Add a Call to Action. A Call to Action urges the customer to call a number, add the product to the online shopping cart, or submit their e-mail to receive more information.
6. List the offer and the price right under the Call to Action.
7. Give users 3 clickable links on the Landing Page and also a phone number as an alternate method to buy.
8. Users buy more often by calling a phone number or filling out a form. An e-mail link will usually get less response. On a response form, reduce the number of questions a user must fill out to buy the product. To make buying simple, make every question relevant or eliminate the question.
9. Add testimonials or case studies from real customers. Good Landing Page copy helps the customer to decide they can trust your company.
10. Highlight your money back guarantee.
11. Add a phone number and your e-mail address. Place a short Privacy policy right next to the box where the user should enter their e-mail address. It can say simply, “We value your privacy and do not rent names”.
12. Placing your address on the landing page builds credibility. To many customers, a real company has a real physical address. This builds trust and increases conversion.

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Reassuring Users with Inukshuk Content

Reassuring Users with Inukshuk Content

The UIE website explains how websites for University of Northern Iowa and Amazon use previous user's experience to reassure new users.

This is the sort of content that reassures users and paves the way for a successful online sale.

This is exactly the point I make about online conversion. When an online user decides to buy from your website, he has reached that decision through many small decisions as your website answers the user's questions. At any point, if your web site fails to answer the customer's need for reassurance, the cutomer will leave the web site without buying your product.

This kind of sales consideration works to both the merchant's and the customer's benefit. This concept is similar to advertising giant David Ogilvy, of Ogilvy and Mather, when he advocated "reason why" copywritiing in his book "Ogilvy on Advertisiing". The more we explain to the potential customer, the more comfort he feels, until he eventually decides to buy.

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YAHOO! Strategy to Fundamentally Alter Searching

Why YAHOO! is Changing the Nature of Search. How YAHOO! Will Use Google's Own Weakness Against Them.


With a sexy IPO, high stock prices and the media's Google-mania, Google has stolen the spotlight from YAHOO! over most of 2005. Even though the two major search engines provide roughly equal volumes of search results to users. Now YAHOO! is launching a counter-strategy that has great potential to regain the attention of web-searchers.

YAHOO! is positioned as more of a content portal with a loyal base of Yahoo mail users and services like their RSS reader. But searching through all this content is a fundamental problem. YAHOO's recent purchase of Del.icio.us, makes it clear that YAHOO! is seeking to further redefine search. If YAHOO! succeeds, the search playing field will be fundamentally changed, to YAHOO!'s benefit. The first clue to YAHOO!'s strategy was their MINDSET SEARCH demo launched in May of 2005. The MINDSET demo was a system to rank and sort search results for your query into commercial or non-commercial (informational) results, based on whether you're shopping or seeking information. A slider at the top of the search results allows a user to select search results more attuned to shopping or more attuned to gathering information.

According to the YAHOO Mindset FAQ:

Commercial implies that the primary purpose of a given page is to sell you something. Informational implies that the primary purpose of the page is to provide information related to your search.

If you're involved with SEO or Pay Per Click, you probably see the internet as a chaotic universe of legitimate merchants and bewildered shoppers who have to sort through too much information to buy what they want.

Search and search marketing are the Market Place Makers. Search Engines and Pay Per Click Marketing solve the problem of bringing customers together with the Merchants who have what they want. Search Engines are vital to the Internet marketplace and WEB 2.0.

The major weakness of Google and many other search engines is that search results fail to separate spammy totally sales-oriented websites from useful and authoritative product information websites. The two are not exclusive. Many websites provide a mix of product information and hard-core sales. The worst example might be a web site selling some unneeded product with a slick sales pitch and almost no product information.

Google has a fundamental weakness. Google's search indexing tries to rank authoritative websites higher but many spammy-sales-oriented websites end up in the results with a low level of information. This is the weakness that YAHOO! is positioning itself to exploit.


YAHOO! Knows That the Crucial Question is This: WHY Does The web customer buy?
The best commercial websites help the customer to achieve comfort with the merchant and the product by giving the customer enough information to answer some very basic questions:

1.Does your web site have what the customer is looking for?
2.How will this product meet the customer’s needs or help them?
3.Is it easy and quick for the customer to buy the product or request more information?
4.Can the customer trust your company to deliver what you promise?

Answer these questions with solid, authoritative product information and you become the next Amazon or other trusted merchant. Merchant websites like Amazon have become trusted, profitable merchants by providing product reviews and good service.

Years ago FEDEX met the unexpected need for overnight delivery and became a market leader. If YAHOO! can redefine the type of Search results delivered by search engines they will gain a unique advantage over Google.

YAHOO! will meet the unmet need of search engine shoppers who are disappointed when their search engine click takes them to some sales cess-pool with more sales pitch and less product information. The YAHOO! MINDSET Search and the purchase of Del.icio.us will allow search users to choose quality sales sites and quality information sites.

Why did YAHOO buy Del.icio.us? Del.icio.us is a social networking site, like Digg or SLASHDOT. Basically editors or trusted web users select and rank news stories or web sites based on their authoritative value as information sites. While Google has always used numbers of quality links to determine the relative value of information or web sites, sites like Digg, Del.icio.us or SLASHDOT put people back into the equation to rank quality of information or web sites.

Essentially these sites fulfill the same function as a human indexed web directory like DMOZ. The advantage of social networking sites is that they overcome the slowness of a directory like DMOZ, with thousands of volunteers in their user community. This is a perfect fit for YAHOO!. YAHOO! has always created user communities with their products like YAHOO Groups, GEO Cities and loyal MY YAHOO! users.

This could mean that YAHOO will take the prize away from Google in the newly defined search arena. YAHOO!'s newly re-defined search arena will be all about search results with quality information and quality information-rich web sites.

Essentially, YAHOO and YAHOO social networks will be able to define the NEW trusted merchants and control which new merchants get the big market share.

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Risks of SEM Outsourcing for Search Engine Marketing

MediaPost Publications - Fear of the O-Word, Part 1

SEARCH INSIDER of December 13, 2005 features an interview with Rohit, the liaison for an India based SEM company that does outsourcing for US SEM companies. Rohit claims that his India-based copywriters are getting superb results.

As an SEO and SEM copywriter with experience on both the ad agency and corporate sides, I find Rohit'’s claims about offshore copywriting to be unbelievable. PPC technicians, who are not native English speakers, have caused serious problems with keywords in some of my recent consulting projects. I'll tell you the embarassing results, after we hear Rohit's side of the story.

QUOTE
Rohit: Many agencies are today outsourcing a lot of their processes to companies abroad. They may not accept that, but I can tell you many companies do outsource. Secondly, I do not see why it should be of any concern. I know the whole question of outsourcing has become a big political debate, but we both know that's how the business will operate in future. It's smart outsourcing that will win the day for any serious business entity.

SI: Why do most of your clients require signing NDAs? Why are they so eager to keep this hidden?


Rohit: I understand where you are coming from--and that's true. Most agencies use outsourcing today in the interactive industry for two reasons: 1) to increase their operating margins, and 2) to tap the knowledge resource. Outsourcing is still not very open in the interactive space as it is today in, say, software development. In software, clients ask for it quite openly. They look for an onshore + offshore model so they have someone locally to interact with clients. I am sure that's going to get replicated in the interactive space too.
ENDQUOTE

He says further:

QUOTE
If you talk about our agency itself, we have a team of copywriters. There is a proper process we follow. It's not just picking up a project and optimizing it. I can tell you, some of the best brands' websites are being worked on by people out of India. I am not trying to exaggerate things, but these are some facts, and the sites are doing wonderfully well on the search engines.
ENDQUOTE

Really? What are these 'best brands' websites that he claims are doing so '“wonderfully well on the search engines'”? I would very much like to read the copy that is produced.

How can even a fairly intelligent offshore person be an effective copywriter for an American audience if he grows up in Bangalore or Delhi? Even assuming a period of 4 years in the US or Britain for their college education, I find Rohit'’s reliance on India-based copywriters to be dubious at best.

My recent and ongoing experience proves that technicians who speak American English as a second language have serious failings for this type of work. A certain US- located Pay Per Click vendor uses some technicians that are not native speakers of English. I have found on several occasions that these technicians have done a poor job of creating effective Pay Per Click keywords.

For a Pay Per Click customer that sold ad banner software, the errant technician had chosen keywords that implied that they developed software for hire as well. The Ad Banner business owner called me shortly afterword to relate that, "your keywords suck". I reaped the foul benefits of that keyword challenged technicians twisted grasp of the english language. I'm sure he would have done better in his native language. I corrected the keywords and peace was restored.

An accounting software website was given inaccurate keyword phrases that attracted customers for web development. Again this was the work of a non-native English speaker. The accounting software company owner was outraged when he read the keywords. Even subtle differences in PPC keywords can be fatal if they attract the wrong customers. Once again I worked quickly to correct the errors of an English speaker who learned English as a second language.

It was painfully obvious to both myself and the business website owners that the keywords chosen by the non-native speakers were inappropriate to the target websites. Sure the keywords matched some of the web copy, but in some cases the keywords were so broad that they failed to address why customers buy the products.

As a consultant, I can't reveal the name of the US Pay Per Click company yet, because the client maintains a relationship with the offending vendor (against my advice). At the end of this project I may be free to disclose the company name.

Aside from keyword selection which is vital to both SEO and PPC campaigns, copywriting is even more sensitive to proper application of language skills. I recently rewrote the landing page copy for a freight container seller using a Pay Per Click campaign. The freight container seller complained that his PPC campaign was useless because none of the clicks converted to sales or even phone calls. I rewrote the landing page copy to add product benefits specific to the buyer's needs and a call to action. I published the new copy to the web at 4pm.

The next morning, the freight container seller called me in a good mood. He said the phone started ringing at about 4:30 pm, "Right after that we got 4 phone calls from visitors to our web site. Three of those phone calls turned into sales that same day"”. This real life example tells me that good web copywriting is crucial to conversions and sales with Pay Per Click marketing.

The notional Indian copywriter that Rohit describes in the interview is severely handicapped by several inadequacies:

1) He is probably not a native American English speaker. Thus he lacks real fluency in common usage, American slang and American media, history and cultural references. I would expect such a copywriter to write lifeless, formulaic, and wooden ad copy. Imagine highly skilled technical writers with little imagination. The customers would stay away in droves.

2) The Indian copywriter will lack knowledge of the subtle nuances of what American consumers expect from products and service providers.

3) How can a copywriter not living in the US cultural madhouse, thus not familiar with many of the US consumer's motivations, really understand all the hot-buttons that motivate a US buyer to purchase the product?

4) Can an offshore copywriter really imagine and write about all the possible uses and benefits of a product if he lives in a different culture? Maybe. Perhaps for simple products with limited uses. Maybe this is possible if the US marketing department prepares a complete Copy Brief and written guidelines.

Rohit'’s non-disclosure agreements, while understandable, are remarkably convenient if they prevent us from seeing and evaluating the quality of his company's ad or web copy. I would want to know the names of two of his clients and read the case studies to help evaluate using such an offshore company for SEM.

Based on my own experience with irritated PPC customers, I would approach using offshore copywriters for American consumers with extreme caution and a good measure of dread.

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Marketing Profs Survey on SEO

Marketing Profs has a published a survey on how businesses view SEO. Here are some insights from the survey:

* Almost half reported SEO as more important or most important future marketing priority.

* Top marketing tactics were: direct marketing, online advertising (banners, PPC), public relations and newspaper/magazine advertising.

* The top online marketing activity was having a web site, with email and then using offline tactics to drive traffic to the web site third.

* A web site is the top online marketing activity and search engine optimization ranked lower than offline promotion to drive web site traffic.

* About a third do not use SEO at all and just under half have been using SEO less than 2 years.

This last factor is the most revealing part of the survey. If one third of businesses do not use search, then they will not gain the potential online sales income that more savvy competitors will reap. Since search engines are the Market-makers of the online world, if your business fails to use SEO, you will be invisible in the online marketplace where net shoppers find net merchants.

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