Thursday, June 30, 2011

Newsletter Tips To Keep Them Reading



Newsletters are publications which are distributed by companies to its subscribers. It is one of the ways to communicate and update their customers with the newest products and services they are offering. Creating newsletters is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to reach a customer. But distributing newsletters requires reliability and appropriateness in order to become effective.

Many business companies are making their way to communicate to their customers with the use of a newsletter. Sending newsletters is a good strategy which has great benefits and drawbacks to your business. The idea of producing a newsletter for business sake is good but in order to make it effective, let me guide you of what to do.

Subscribe and read other newsletters
It will help a lot if you will invest some of your time reading other newsletters from other companies. This will help you gain some ideas which are also applicable to yours. Reading their article is not illegal unless you will copy everything that was written, then you’ll be accused of plagiarism.

Create your newsletter’s name
Be creative when creating your newsletter’s name. This will help you attract more readers and will improve your marketing strategy. Remember, readers take a look at the title first. So think of something unique and eye-catching words, and be creative in formulating your phrases. Don’t bury the best words at the end of the article. Put it on the front page and you’ll see readers drawing in and reading your entire issue.

Create a theme
The theme will serve as the over-all format of what your article should look like. Choose a theme which can make the readers appreciate your newsletter. Think of how you can make your newsletter attract more readers in order to generate more subscriptions to your business.

Outline your topics
When making a newsletter, it will be better if you organize its content. Readers become bored with a document which is full of text and they couldn’t even finish reading it. Plan to write your newsletter in stages or outline form. By this idea, readers will find it easy to understand since it is organized according to the different topics.

Ask for feedback
People’s feedback and comments are very useful in improving the quality of your work. It is good to accept some suggestions, comments and feedback from other people. They could provide you some ideas of what to do to and what to avoid in your work. You must consider the people’s opinion because they are the ones who are receiving and reading it.

Creating a newsletter may seem to be simple but creating a newsletter that can draw every reader to read your entire article is something that you must think about. Yes, newsletters could help you communicate and reach out to your customers. But to make this strategy effective, make sure that what you are publishing is worth all the efforts you have invested to lead them to read it and not to simply throw it away.

Search Engine Marketing: Ranking On Top of the Record



Search engine marketing seeks to provide every website owner the chance to promote their online visibility. In the local business industry, small or big business owners could actually take advantage of the benefits that they could gain from search engine marketing. It is typically used to utilize the various means of marketing a website in order to become visible and searchable over the different search engines.

Search engine marketing is a steady and mind-numbing task. It requires you to be focused and assertive. It needs frequent monitoring and updates.

By means of search engine marketing, you should be able to exploit the Internet and attract potential customers to visit your website and take a look of what you are offering. This is one of the advantages of search engine could offer most especially to those businesses who wish to promote their business online.

To know more of what strategy will work best, try to check the following:

Research on your target audience
Think about those users you want to attract with your site. The most crucial part of marketing is to make sure that your message is being conveyed properly to the targeted readers. By this means, people who have heard and seen your message will most likely purchase your product.

Use unique and descriptive titles
The title will be the very first factor that a potential customer would be attracted to. It will determine how interesting your site would be. Having a unique title or heading will lead every reader to open your site and take a glimpse of what you are offering.

Enhance your website
Creating a website without a website marketing plan is non sense. A website marketing plan is important not only to build an online presence but also for the continuity of your survival and existence. Having a website helps you to flourish and expand your business. Your website must be specifically designed to promote your product. Everything you have in your website must only have one ultimate purpose – turning every audience as your customer.

Check your current ranking
High search engine rankings require a dedicated and effective SEO strategy. Search engine technologies have evolved over the time and it is very important that your website is current and up-to-date with the latest search engine optimization strategies. This will help maintain the present standing of your website in the ranking, and would eventually mean more revenue for your business.

Validate your keywords
Keyword optimization is another strategy of search engine optimization. Including specific keywords in your content will help you gain traffic from search engine sites like Yahoo! and Google. Keywords could help you rank higher from any other companies. Knowing what keywords to use is an important and effective strategy in attracting potential customers to your site.

Properly optimized content will be a significant asset for your business to head the long run. Establishing a strong online presence by consistently updating your content will help you boost the traffic to your website. A good number of people visiting your site will help you leverage your ranking in the search engines and in return, increase the number of potential customers.

With all these different strategies, why don’t you try one to help you build the rank you are wishing for? 

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

How to Write An Effective Article




Are you fond of writing articles about something which you want to share but don’t really have a concrete idea of how it should be written? Actually, we are born having skills in writing. It is innate to all human beings. Everyone can write indeed, but writing an article must always follow some set of rules.

You can write articles which are related to different topics. It could be your one interest, previous experiences, places you have been through, favorite celebrities, sports, and many more. To write an article is also sharing to other people what’s inside your heart and mind. Though you could also do some research but the most significant of all is when you know that the article which you have written is purely made by you.

The main purpose of writing an article is to convey a message to the public audience. Before you write an article, you must remember that the format plays a very important role in determining the quality of your article. In your own common sense, who would read an article wherein the content are scrambled and hard to understand than an article written in an organized manner. You must always consider how the readers will react to your article and their expectations as well.

Given below is the format on how to write an article correctly.

Article Title

A good title will definitely play a very important role in attracting people to read your article. Title will always be the first words which the people could see at the first sight. So in order to persuade them to read your entire article, what you must do is to think and be creative enough in developing a good title for your article. It depends on the title of the article if the reader will proceed reading the article until the end or will just simply ignore it.

Introduction

The introduction of the article must give the reader a brief idea of what the article contains. In this part, you must present to the reader a good background about your topic and the entire discussion. In the introduction, you only need to simplify your topic which will be discussed on in full details in the main body of your article.

Body

The body is the most important part of the article. It is the most vital part because you must discuss all the concepts related to your topic. You must also answer the questions which pertain specifically to your topic. The body of an article may contain many subtopics and it is advisable to craft each one and make some sort of subtitles. This will be easier to understand and will enable the readers to have an idea of what the entire article contains.

Conclusion

The conclusion is found at the end of the article. In this context, you should provide the reader a brief summary of what you have discussed in your article. You can also give some references which you have used. It will be essential to acknowledge and give some credits to the website or pages where you have taken your references.


These are the common format of writing an effective article. Most of the writers, whether local or international, follows the same set of format. By doing so, you will have an organized content and the readers will be engaged easily on reading your article since it is easy for them to understand. Basically, article writing is easy. It’s just that, there are some rules that you have to follow to make it effective.

Facebook for Business Startup


So, you’re a business owner finding the right choice for business strategy? And I guess you’re using Facebook, right? If yes, then you have a great potential of marketing your business over the online community.

Facebook, in fact, is an indispensable part of business strategies for most of the business entrepreneurs. With a huge community of over 500 million users and still growing, Facebook could be a great help of finding leads and potential customers for your business. Today, small businesses are using Facebook to build online presence, community, and a wide array of fans, putting them up all together in a single page where there are an online interactions and continuous updates. Having them packed all together as one, business entrepreneurs could instantly dig in to the different customers offering with their products and drawing them to purchase it.

As a business entrepreneur who wishes to gain a good standing of profits, you really need to go where the people and potential customers are. And with a huge community, it is most likely that you could easily find customers for your products and services. The golden rule for every businessman is to put himself to where the customers are.

The following are the simple strategies to start your business in Facebook.

Identify your goals

It is always important that before you start with something, you must need to set your goals which will serve as your motivational factor to succeed. Goal setting ideally involves establishing the 5 basic guidelines: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-targeted objectives. It can serve as an effective tool for the progress of your business and making you aware of what’s the current status of your business.  Goal setting compromises a major factor in the development of the business as well as performance.

Start small and slow

Starting your business at first doesn’t necessarily need a big capital. Every huge company and successful business starts from small ones. With their full determination and hard work, they attained the goal they’ve once dreamed of. If you’re aiming to be successful, it doesn’t mean that you start kicking off with a huge business. You have to start from the primary and the most basic. As you grow your business, you will learn different things and gain various knowledge and ideas which could help you with your business.

Build credibility

Online pages such as a Facebook fan page is a great way for finding potential customers and leads. You could easily communicate with the public and promote to them your product. Like any other fan pages, public viewers could not see the actual appearance of the product since these pages only present pictures and videos of the product. Building an online credibility requires much effort in order to gain the trust of the public. Though you have the best product, but if the people doubt it, you’ll turn down yourself and end with nothing. In order to build credibility over the online community, you must present the reality to the public, never blind them with pictures and videos alone. Assure them that what you are saying is true and reliable.

Engage to your customers

Another strategy to gain a good relationship in the online community is to engage with them. Online marketing through Facebook is not only about promoting and selling your product. You must also learn to interact with the public so that you can gain their trust. In that way, selling your product will be easy and will not require a lot effort from your part. 

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Basic Facebook Marketing Strategies

Facebook, as one of the most influential social networking sites all over the world, has gained 500 million users and still counting. It cannot be denied that Facebook is the most powerful social network over the planet, dominating the enormous number of the population in the world.  With an increasing number of users, Facebook paves its way to become the major outlet for business promotion making it an advantage for most of the smart business entrepreneurs.

The best way to gain most of the advantage from Facebook is to learn how to offer the best to the Facebook users as well. Give them the best promotional strategies and offer them with great benefits and you’ll be surprised yourself with the most number of users visiting your fan page, asking with varieties of queries about you and your product.

To take your business to the next level with the help of Facebook, here are some tips and strategies.

Create a Facebook fan page

Do you have your own fan page? If yes, do fans come and visit your page?

Fan pages are created and offered by Facebook to its users most specifically to business entrepreneurs. It is a great strategy to build an online presence and make an active and consistent updates about your products and services. Fan pages are used to lure audiences to access your product. However, in order for them to be enticed by your fan page, make sure that your page looks appealing and captures the eyes and hearts of the audiences.

Plan for an effective strategy

Many of the small things have been made large by the right kind of strategies and ideas. It’s not enough if we settle ourselves with just creating a page and doing nothing. You can have the best product in the world but if people don’t buy it,  it makes no sense at all. It doesn’t matter how good the potential of your product is, what matters most is how you offer them to the people and attract your potential customers. If you don’t believe in your product and if you’re not consistent in promoting it, the possibility of success will deteriorate.  

Offer the best advantage

Creating a great fan page equipped with a variety of styles, attractive pictures and impressive content will likely draw each and every viewer to become your potential customer. Having an online presence for business will grant you good advantage in terms of connections, popularity and visibility. Pictures and videos posted on your fan page could blind the public viewers of what your product is all about. But this isn’t good. Though you showcase your products in terms of photos, make sure that the quality of your product doesn’t differ to what the people see on those photos and will not fail their expectations. Offering the best benefits from your product will surely attract the viewers making them realize that your product is good and it is worth the money they will pay for you.

Use attractive photos and videos

Utilizing photos and videos in fan pages will help draw every audience to your site. It is also a great opportunity to connect with other people and let them see your products and services in a unique way. The photos you used will represent your name, product and company to the public viewers. It is important that the photos and videos good enough to guarantee good attraction to the viewers. It is advisable that you upload different photos and videos consistently to entice viewers coming back and forth. It is also good strategy to stay current and updated on the Internet. Photos and videos can help you engage with the public viewers as well as to communicate with them.

Facebook Marketing: One Good Strategy To Connect With The Audiences


Facebook, as one of the most prominent social networking sites, has gained a remarkable influence in a large portion of the various demographics of the global and local audiences. With 500 million users, and still counting, Facebook has attracted all the different sectors of people since they started to release their site in the market. 

Basically, Facebook was created to connect every people all over the world to share common thoughts and interests, find new friends, communicate with loved ones and discover something different. Through the years, Facebook continues to be innovative for their site in order to provide the people with something fresh and brand new. In actual fact, Facebook pages can be a great strategy to connect with the audiences most importantly in behalf of some business entrepreneurs. 

Facebook helps every business entrepreneur build their online identity through fan pages. These pages will serve as breeding grounds to promote their products and services. Also, these will become a turning point for excellent feedback and comments. To become productive using Facebook marketing, here are some ways to keep your clients flocking:

Eye-catching company/product title

Think of something different that could eventually attract the attention of the people. Be creative. Bring out the best that could impress the users. Remember, it’s your page that they are giving attention to.

Design

It is one factor why people like your page and keep coming back. You’ll never regret if you’ll invest time and resources in making a great page. Be unique and it’s very important that you stand out from the rest. 

Target population

If you decide to advertise on Facebook, you must be sure that you must identify whom you are selling your products and services. Consider what people will be searching first whenever they get to log in the internet. 

Marketing strategy

Traditional marketing practices are considered obsolete today. With all the innovations present in the world, every business entrepreneur starts to overhaul their strategies and shift to the online world because they believe that the Internet contributes greater impact on the effectiveness of their marketing plan. 

Online Presence

Having an online presence, every business entrepreneur has the chance to connect with their customers. From time to time, more and more users will visit your page and ask some questions and information. There will be no sense if you opt to promote your products over the internet if you can’t answer each of your customer’s queries. You must stay on track with what’s happening and get updated of the recent phenomenon. 

Facebook has offered its millions of users with all the advantages they could get. With the help of Facebook, you remain visible in the minds of every user and losing or getting behind the competition is something that you will not have to worry about. 

Well, I guess, I have given you enough ideas with all the aforementioned information above on how to market your business through Facebook. So take your first step now.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Internet Marketing Strategies to Boost up Your Business



Having successful Internet marketing strategies play a very significant part in leading you to your success. To become what you aim to be, you must develop good strategies that will help you reach your goals. The Internet has become the breeding ground for success of most business owners. Building an online presence could really boost your sales and profit. People use the Internet for more than an hour every day and there is a greater possibility that they’ll have the chance to visit your site. In order to attract people to visit your site, the first thing you must know is to create a good website. This will be your armor in catching the attention of the people.

Internet marketing could be that easy once you are guided with a good strategy. If you are able to build a good foundation of your business over the Internet, it’s always possible that you will succeed. So if you are a struggling entrepreneur who wishes to make use of the Internet to become productive, then start planning your strategies now.

Below are some of the strategies that are found to be effective in Internet marketing.

Market research

Before you start planning for your actions, the very important thing that you must do is to conduct a research regarding your potential customers. It is always a good strategy to conduct a study first before you jump into a conclusion. Remember, business is a very serious thing. You’ll invest money for that. And losing that money in an instant is a great disappointment and frustration in your part. Before anything else takes place, it is always advised to discover all the facts and study them.

Data analysis

After you have researched the market setting, the next step for you to work with is the analysis of the data you have gathered. Study everything that you have discovered. Connect each point which you think is significant so that you’ll arrive to a good conclusion. Data analysis will guide you with the steps you are going to take. Since business is a serious matter, you must be vigilant enough in planning your steps towards your main goal.

Develop a good marketing strategy

After all the research that you have conducted and have studied everything, this time all you have to do is to lay down all your ideas, concepts and theories and make use of them to serve as the basis of your strategic plan. Your strategic plan is like a skeleton of the human body. The denser your bones are, the stronger person you are and the lesser the possibility that you will commit fractures. If we apply it to your strategic plan, once you have created and built a very strong foundation, there will be no room for any mistakes. That’s how a good strategic plan works.

Performance Evaluation

When you have already implemented your plan, the only thing you must do is to evaluate whether it is effective or not. Determine the strengths and weakness of your plan so that you could improve it next time. Failures cannot be avoided. There will always be some factors that will affect your plan so better keep a keen eye on every detail of your actions so you could avoid or if not lessen the occurrence of some mistakes.

Simple Tips for Writing an Article in Magazine


Is writing an article for a magazine a hard work?

Definitely.

Writing alone is a hard work. It will take some time to develop your skill in it. You have to spend much of your time researching for some references in order to make an outstanding article. It will take time to develop an idea of what topic to write, how to create a great title and what to write in the body of the article. Writing an article will take some time to begin and even much more time to finish writing the entire article.

So, does it mean there will be no success in writing?

Wrong.

Writing might be hard but full dedication and a little motivation would make it easier. Yes, writing can be learned as long as you are patient enough to discover all the possibilities.  By opening up your mind to your environment, you will find many ideas and topics to write about.

Writing an article and being published in a magazine is a dream come true for a lot of writers. It is because they will be granted with a fat paycheck and is a very great opportunity for them to expose their talent to the public and be read by different people.

To know more about writing an article to be published on a magazine, here are some tips:

Choose a topic of your interest

In writing, you can’t force yourself to write about something if you don’t have any idea about it. Always make sure that before you start writing your article, you‘re expert on that field and that you can elaborate easily everything that you know about it.

You will definitely produce a very impressive and high-quality article if you knowledgeable in that specific field. In return, many readers will appreciate your work and be impressed with your content. I suggest that before you start writing, take note of the different topics or ideas you have remembered which you have an in-depth knowledge of ,so that you will not find it hard to write.

Conduct a wide research

Research is always a part of writing. Most writers conduct their research before they start to write their articles. Though you have a huge stock of ideas and knowledge about a certain topic, it is always advisable to consider researching about it. By doing so, you could discover the latest updates and trends about your topic and it will really help you in constructing a wide variety of ideas which you can include in your article.

Develop an outline

When writing an article, it will be easy to understand if the contents are organized in an outline. Readers usually find it difficult to read if they are bombarded with a huge wall of text. They will find it boring. Plan to outline your ideas into different topics and subtopics to make it easier to understand. Having this idea will lead every reader to read your entire article and will not ignore it.

End your article with a bang

Now that you have reached the end point, season it with an awesome phrase or a question. It may be a revelation, question or quotes. Anything that could make the readers think and will dig in to discover the answer. This idea is to make your readers read your other articles.

Having the skills in writing could be developed as you continue to learn and open yourself to try the different things and discover what else you can do. If you only have the will, there is always a room for improvement and learning. Just imagine how your power to write could bring a brighter future for your career just like some amateur writers are aiming for. Not only for popularity because of having your work published in a simple magazine. But the main point here is, your works are being read and appreciated by the public. You know what’s the most significant purpose of writing? It’s when you convey a message to the readers and share your thoughts to them.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Transcription and Translation (Two Great Tool for Social Media Marketing)

        Transcription and Translation are two words that people use interchangeably, without knowing that they have different meaning. Some virtual assistants may use this as a part of social media marketing. Transcription is a clarification of a vague information, whatever or however an information is presented. On the other hand, Translation works on rendering a language into another language that are best understood by the target audience/ target market.

        Both are very helpful for social media marketing. For example, transcription can be applied to a client who gives a verbal request for his social media marketing plans, you as his/her VA transcribe it in a form of a facebook status, tweet etc. On the other hand, translation helps when your client uses a foreign language and wants his/her tweets to be translated to english. Here is a simple presentation of the difference between Transcription and Translation.

Transcription
        Transcription as part of social media marketing plans, basically uses one language but uses two form of communication process, written and verbal. An information that is unclearly delivered is transcribed to a clearer counterpart maintaining the same meaning of the information. Transcription is also used for smoother operation or for the purpose of record keeping by transcribing verbal records to written records.
        For example, a phone conversation is transcribed into written record as a documentation in a telecommunication company. Another great example is the work of a medical transcriptionist who transcribes a doctor’s order to the treatment chart of a patient, so technically, transcription is more about documentation. Usually, transcription is done alone for the consistency of the product.
        Transcription utilizes transcription software that help a human transcriptionist to transcribe an audio text to written text. Making their work simpler and faster. Sometimes, a foot pedal or transcription pedal if you want to use a computer controlled player to transcribe, it can be connected to a computer using a USB port connector.
 
Translation
        Translation as part of social media marketing happens if an information is translated to another language for the target audience to understand that specific information still maintaining it’s original meaning. It is obviously seen that two different languages are involved in translation, there are instances that an action language is translated to a spoken or written language, like that of a translator between a mute and an ordinary person.
        Translation is also used in travelling (political purposes, business transactions, or a simple tour)  to other countries. It is also common to a Miss Universe Beauty Pageant’s question and answer portion. It’s also used by exchange students and professionals (e.g. doctors and nurses for medical missions).
        A translator should have an excellent knowledge on to which or from which he or she is translating. Translating is much easier to be said than to be done, translators must maintain the thought or idea of the information that is to be translated. Though the criteria for translators and multilingualism are not that far to each other, still translators and multilingual people can’t be used as synonyms. All translators can be multilingual, but not all multilingual people can be translators. Multi-lingual people express their personal ideas, thoughts or emotions to other language/s, but translators express other’s ideas, thoughts or emotions to other language/s.

Web Research Guide: Way of Researching of your SEO Virtual Assistant

          Research is used in many different ways. From school projects to office works. Each has unique ways of gathering information and answering their own queries even your very own SEO virtual assistant. Before when the Internet was not that accessible, people used libraries as their main source of data and information. Books and other printed materials are very reliable sources for research as long as it was recently published. Card catalogs are used by librarians to locate and organize the books needed. The thing that makes libraries a significant source of data is that you are assured that their data is properly processed thus making it legally reliable (but only to a limited time since data also needs updating).

          Fast forward to the present. The Internet has been the main source of data for SEO virtual assistant research. With a single click, your SEO virtual assistant and even you can get all the data that you need right at the comfort of your own home. All you need is a computer that has a decent Internet connection and presto! You can now browse your online source of data. BUT wait, there’s a very big but in using the Internet as a source of information.

No. 1 It isn’t reliable all the time
          Since it’s posted online that doesn’t make it reliable. Anyone can edit it anytime they want to. No assurance can be given to Internet users.

No. 2 Charges for gaining access.
          Since it took time and effort to put those printed materials online (more popularly known as e-Books), the author or owner of the rights to the e-Book would surely ask for some amount in exchange for your SEO virtual assistant and even you to gain access.

No. 3 It is not organized.
          Using the Internet as a source of information is like swimming in a vast ocean. The data is unorganized, unlike in a library. This is where the role of search engines come into play.  

Helpful Search Engines

          They are also known as the online librarian. Using keywords, search engines will direct you to pages that are related to the keywords that you typed in. There are a lot of search engines that can be used for free, there’s google, yahoo and many more.
What do I and my SEO Virtual Assistant need to know when I am using the Internet as my source of information?

1. Know your search engines
          Know what and how to use the helpful search engines. You will be using them throughout your research. Page ranking is one of the main basis of a page’s reliability, high page ranking means that the page you opened is a trusted site.

2. Create an outline of your question
          Creating an outline of your questions will serve as the back bone of your task. This is putting your goals into action, plus it saves time and effort.

3. Proper use of keywords when searching
          If the search engine can not give you the page that you have been looking for, maybe you can use other synonyms or other groups of words for your keywords.

4. Evaluate your source
          Evaluating the site can be a bit difficult for beginners, but as what others would say, learn from your own experience. Their are no rules in knowing reliable sites but you can simply choose what can help your task according to your own standards.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Writing with Good Content (Tandem to Success in Social Media Marketing)


This is what WRITING is...

          Marie has a business. She’s going to launch her business but she has no money. So she planned to use Social Media Marketing to launch it. It’s free by the way. And so she used it and everything went fine. She’ll probably be a business tycoon in the future.
          Now she’s planning to open a shop in the cloister and continue using Internet and Social Media Marketing.

Now this is what WRITING WITH GOOD CONTENT can be...

          Marie has started her first ever home-made bag business. She’s very excited to launch her new product. She knows that every teen on their town would really love her home-made bags. But there is a very big question running in her mind. How WILL she launch her business? or How CAN she launch her business? She has no budget to hold a very big event with event coordinator, space rentals, catering service, etc.  Now poor Marie is thinking, CAN she launch her business?
          YES! She CAN! How? Simply by using Social Media Marketing (SMM). Social Media are the popular networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Blogger and many more. Social Media Marketing is simply marketing using those Social Media. It lets you show what your business can do or produce. You can start conversations about your business, just like Marie’s home-made bag business, she can start posting photos on her facebook account and tweeting her promos and opening discounts. After having conversations, Marie will then develop relationships with her clients and eventually gain loyal customers.
          And the very best part of SMM is, it’s FREE! No need for an event coordinator, space rental, catering service, etc. All you need is your computer with Internet access and your creativity.
          So Marie tried Social Media Marketing. Later, many friends commented for reservations on her home-made bag’s photos, plus she gained so many followers on twitter! The following week, she finds herself thinking of opening a stand on a nearby mall while continuing her online promotions. Isn’t it lovely? I’m sure Marie will earn more and become rich in the near future.

See the difference of the two? WRITING WITH GOOD CONTENT SHOULD BE:

1. Understandable. We must use terms that our target market will easily understand. Can teenagers, as the target market of Marie’s business, understand the term cloister (A covered walk with an open stall on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle)?

2. Complete and Organized. On the first example, Marie’s business was not specifically identified, the conclusion of the story went through the body. We can’t even consider it as an article. It’s simply incomplete and unorganized compared to the second example, Writing with good content. Marie’s business was clearly understood as a home-made bag business and it was properly organized from beginning up to the conclusion.

3. Useful and Informative. Writing with good content defined Social Media Marketing very well, making it very informative and useful for SMM beginners.

4. Unique. Uniqueness triggers curiosity and curiosity attracts possible customers to know your business. Writing with good content example shows uniqueness because it used a story telling style added with factual information about Social Media Marketing.

All this, if applied basically on your writings will lead you to no trouble. But, this is not limited to these standards. There’s more for you to discover through experience.

Social Media Marketing Plan - The Jewel Inside You


Easier said than done.

Read this story::

NON-EXISTENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING...
          Paul’s sitting on his same old office. He opened his jewelry shop months ago but as he looked at his sales, well everything was flat as a glass table. He posted so many paper ads on every wall in the street but everyone else was so busy to stop and read his uhh...

          As he went out to get some hotdogs, he saw everyone walking with their smart phones and some who are sitting with their laptops,
          “Technology will always be the trend”
He said to his sad self. But he started thinking,
          “What are they looking at? What are these people doing with their phones and laptops?” 
So he thought,
          “Maybe I can go inside there and promote my jewelries. But how?”
          He muttered as he arrived to the hotdog stand.

THE BIRTH OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING...
          “Oh, not you Dave!”
He exclaimed to the cashier with a smart phone on his hand on the hotdog shop.
          “What? What’s wrong? I’m just tweeting? Don’t worry, you’ve got your bills right, and I tweeted here(Paul having some hotdogs)”
said Dave, still on the phone.
          “Oh,Tony replied (He’s the owner of the boring jewelry shop right?)...Uhmm, I’m sorry for that Paul”
          “No, no, it’s alright, no biggy, it’s his opinion, actually, It’s true.. He’s right, I’m the owner of an unknown jewelry shop.
          “Well maybe you can spice up your shop using Social Media Marketing, see, his hotdog shop is such a hit.
Dave whispered, as he handed down Paul’s order of Classic Hotdog. Actually Paul discovered about the delicious hotdog on a photo tagged by Dave in Facebook. Now he’s thinking about the social media marketing plan Dave recommended him.


THE BIG REBORN
          Paul realized “Since everyone is into Social Media, why don’t I reintroduce my product using social media? Hey, that would be great”

And so, Paul started to put into actions his SMM plan:

FIRST: Know what everyone else wants. TAKE HEED.

          Collect facts directly from your customers about what they want and what they need, feedback and suggestions, etc. You must join related groups in the beginning but try to extend to others, influence people to speak up what they prefer related to your product. Don’t be stagnant. You can influence verbalization by posting creative photos and videos.

SECOND: PLAN.

          Every business is unique and needs a unique plan and clear goals.

Example of a start up plan:

Have a Facebook Account by Monday and invite at least 15 persons per day.  

Example of a long term goal.

At the end of the SMM plan, I will be able to gain 100 to 400 friends on facebook and have 20 or more regular visitor/guest rate on my jewelry shop.

Goals should be SMART. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

You must identify your target market first. You can start  by signing up to famous social media sites that you know like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc. Build a foundation of your relationship by interacting with potential and loyal customers.

THIRD: INVEST TIME.

         Take time to build relationships and trust, to share to them what you know and vice versa. You must allot specific times for interaction in your Facebook, Twitter and Youtube accounts. If you don’t interact, your strategy will be considered like a mummy, preserved but dead..

          After a time (unidentified if long or short), Paul went out for hotdog with his smart phone, greeting his loyal customers on his way out. He tweeted “Excited for the opening of my next jewelry shop in New York, thanks to my social media marketing plan!”, painting a smile on his face.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Advertising Slogan; Form of Copywriting that an SEO Virtual Assistant Can Use

Advertising slogans have been very effective strategies for promoting a business, whether it is big or small. It is one of the famous forms of copywriting that an SEO Virtual Assistant use in providing their SEO services. Slogans can be created for a mean time for a promo or campaign, or it can be an official slogan for a business. Advertising slogans can also evolve from a simple to a more developed line as time and the company demands.

The main purpose of an advertising slogan is to introduce a business and give a specific thought that a business wants the target market to remember, some SEO Virtual Assistant as a part of SEO services that they give, may help you in formulating your slogan. Here is a simple example of an advertising slogan used in a business.


“Joe’s 24/7 Restaurant, the home of delicious eggplant...” The board stated in front of Joe’s Restaurant. From breakfast to midnight snacks, Joe’s Restaurant never fails to cook delicious yet affordable and cheap dishes with eggplants as the main ingredient. Joe became rich and famous with this slogan. Who wouldn’t be? Joe get a litle help from an SEO Virtual Assistant  and they followed the 3 basic rules in formulating an advertising slogan.

1. Make the advertising slogan sticky or memorable.

a. Proper rhyming. As what you have observed, the rhyming sound in the slogan is “-ant”. Just like what poem writers use, rhyming makes it easy for the brain to remember what word comes next.
b. Double meaning. Since the restaurant was well-known for its cheap dishes, the slogan was able to deliver 2 thoughts. Aside from delivering the message that Joe’s restaurant serves eggplant dishes, eggplant in that slogan can also mean cheap. (We all know that eggplant is cheap)

2. The Business or Brand Name should be included in the advertising slogan.

It’s really preferable to include the business or brand name in the slogan. How can someone introduce another person your business if he will not include the name in his/ her introduction. It’s like a man giving referrals to his manager, how will the manager know the referral if he/she doesn’t know the name of the referred applicant. Names exist as identification of anything in the universe.

3. Show the business’ asset.
   
Everyone always wants to gain something in everything that they give away. Customers want to be sure that they gain an equal return or more for the product or service that they’ve paid for. Stating what your business can do for them will surely draw customers.

To sum up, an advertising slogan is preferably short and catchy by proper rhyming and giving it a  double meaning that can best describe the business that it wants to promote. The business name and the benefits that a business can bring you should also be included to create a greater impact for the business and the consumers as well. This type of task still depends on the contract between you and your SEO Virtual Assistant.

Factors Affecting The Rate of SEO Virtual Assistant


“Economic Crisis”, the major problem of the world. Where  did it come from? No one knows. But virtual assistants can lessen your burden (Well, they can't totally solve it, can they?)

Now these questions might enter your mind:
“How can VAs lessen my burden?”
or
“How do Virtual Assistants rate their clients?”.
And you might conclude things like:
“Oh, they’re only for big businesses”
“Nah. I can’t afford getting one, I don’t have the budget for them”
or
“ Virtual what? I don’t have the time to know them, I’m busy and they sound expensive! Never mind! ”

Maybe it’s time to know how and what affects Virtual Assistant’s rate especially the in-demand type of virtual assistant, the SEO Virtual Assistant. They are the people who ensure that your site is on the top page rank. But first, We must know several things to answer the questions you have formulated with the concept of Virtual Assistants especially those who are linked with SEO services:

FIRST:  An SEO Virtual assistant provide his or her own materials. (e.g. computer, internet service, phone line, fax line and other office related materials.)
Uhh.. Maintenance is one of the hardest things to do, especially if it means spending a lot.

SECOND: An SEO Virtual Assistant ensures that he/she charges enough to cover all the maintenance and their personal expenses.
Well, it’s not a good feeling to receive overwhelming monthly bills if you have nothing to pay.

THIRD: An SEO Virtual Assistant is a professional entrepreneur who are trained to help busy people who want more to their life.
They’ve studied and worked hard to acquire the right knowledge, skills and attitude to fit as your VA. Expect them to master maybe not all but most of your tasks.

FOURTH: An SEO Virtual Assistant doesn’t receive company benefits (unless they’re under a VA Company).
This simply means that they can’t enjoy the benefits rendered by a normal company. No 13th month pay, no holiday pay, no discount on fitness centers, etc. Too bad for them.

FIFTH: In times of sickness, an SEO Virtual Assistant  has to pay their own medical expenses as well as fund their own retirement.
They have no medical insurance to depend on when they get sick or meet an accident. Well, that’s kinda heavy on their pocket.

To sum up: Virtual Assistants are rated according to:

1. The investment that they give.

As what I have mentioned above, Virtual assistants need to maintain the materials (like telephone, fax line, internet connection and even the computer unit itself)  that they need in doing your tasks. It’s a must to balance their debits and credits for them to perform at their fullest.Plus, they invest not only material and monetary stuffs, they also invest dedication, hard-work, and loyalty which can’t be bought at any amount and reaped only by respecting each other.

2. The quantity of their task.

    It simply covers the amount of their production. How fast they can work and produce the expected outcome at your expected time. To reach your expectations they must be quick and smart enough in doing your tasks. You wouldn’t like to have a Virtual Assistant that is slow and unreliable right?

3. The quality of their task

We don’t only look on how fast a VA can finish a task but the excellence of the outcome would surely matter. Investments and quantity wouldn’t matter that much if the outcome quality of the task delegated to them is not good. As what they say “Content is King” - a current meme (ideas or beliefs that are transmitted from one person or group of people to another) when organizing or building a website (Wikipedia)

4. The time they consume in doing your tasks.

Remember, Time is Gold. All we wanted to say here is that virtual assistants deserve their typical rate of  $12-$50 per hour (according to source) Not too costly, and not too cheap. Again, this rate may vary according to the tasks delegated by the clients. Virtual Assistants are PROFESSIONAL, HARD-WORKING, and WILLING TO HELP to the extent of their capabilities that’s why they need reasonable prices for their services.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Link Building: Safety First

Link Building is a great need for old and new businesses with new websites. You need visitors to your site for it to be an effective marketing strategy, plus you also need a big and reliable sites to gain views and traffic. Easy to say but it is very hard to do. A good link building strategy should be then formulated for a successful and safe promotion of your business.


In the beginning, you must check how relevant or how related you are to the site where you’re trying to insert your links. Though you’ve inserted a link to a site with a high page ranking that is not related to your business or far from your niche, you will still end up on Pluto. For example, you have a shoe business and you posted your link to the number one big fluorescent bulb company with a top page rank, now, don’t ask me what will happen to your site.
   
Getting your site linked with top websites may take a long time or might never happen. (You’re not the only one on the waiting list pal!) So maybe you can try link juice. It is where your site is linked with average and even low ranked sites. But you must also make sure that quantity and quality links should be in balance. Some may randomly link their site and overdo link juice. Quality sites may also refer to related sites to your business. That is why. Balance in high, average and low page ranking sites is a must in order to maximize the time allotted to your link building strategy.

Many business owners resolve these problems by hiring expert link building companies to do link building for them while some of them try pay per click advertising. Pay per click advertising may be considered an artificial way of link building. Well, it’s a good way to draw traffic to your site, but what if you run out of budget for this type of advertising? You will still go back to where you have started. As what they’ve said PPC has a limitation so the better strategy is to use it as a conjunction to search engine optimization.

But the good news is, most of business owners who seek help to link building companies ended up with a good page ranking. Though this may take some time and needs a consistent maintenance, but then, the results compensated all of its casualties. You are rest assured that your site is in good hands. But remember, you must also be careful in choosing your link building company. You must choose a company with a good reputation from a reliable source as some of them perform the incorrect or illegal ways of building links.  You don’t want your site to end up being shut down by Google, Yahoo or Bing.

Just a tip, in everything that you do for your business, you need to be careful. Start slow, and then taper off. Ask for help if you think you need so. 

Link Building Strategies Revealed

Oh yeah! You now have your website for your online marketing strategy. So? Are you visible to the naked eye? Uh, what I really mean is, do people who visit their favorite search engine see you on the first page? If not, then throw away your dreams. You’re going no where. BUT WAIT! Try Link Building, hold on to your dreams and watch out how your dreams come true right in front of you.


Link Building is literally building the link that directs to your website. In this task, you will  insert your very own link to other sites related to your interests or to your niche. You can hire Link Building Companies to help you.  Actually, it can be done in many different ways like:

1. Directory Submission   

Online Directories used as Link Building are like telephone directories (yeah, the yellow pages and white pages) but instead of telephone numbers, web address are recorded here. Searching the internet is like searching a telephone number in a directory, but the grouping and niche makes the big difference with online and telephone directories. Thus, it will be easier for the users to browse and search.

2. Social Bookmarking   

Digg, Stumble Upon and Reddit are some of the interesting sites where you could  promote your site. Post your works here, Digg, stumble and read other’s post on those site, they might do the same to your posts too.

3. Guest Authoring
   
All you need to do here is to write your best article. Ask the best author that you know to post your best masterpiece to his best site. We need a little convincing power on this link building strategy.

4. Article Directory Submission   

You know Ezine? Well it’s one of the best sites to post your article. But make sure that you use proper keywords in article directory submission, or else your article might end up on nothing. It’s also like directory submission, but obviously you will submit articles here and not web address.

5. Blog Commenting
   
“I love your article, Rock! Check mine at www.imaloserinblogcommenting.com” Congratulations, your comment has just been flagged as spam. That’s not the way you build your link friend. Try to read other articles and comment honestly what you feel towards that article. By starting a conversation with the author, it will trigger him and other readers to check out your site plus they might comment back at you. You’ll be also glad that you’ve learned something new from them. But if your time is limited, then link building companies may help you in this strategy.

6. Forum Participation      

It’s like a freshman socializing to his batchmates and schoolmates. Getting to know others is also sharing what you have. Forum participation lets you meet people on your niche, making higher possibility to gain viewers and traffic in your site. 

Monday, June 20, 2011

SEO Services: Web Development Elements and Process in Simple Discussion


Web Development is literally developing a website, an integral part of SEO services that an SEO company offer. As I asked some Web Developers from our SEO company to discuss Web development in a simple way. What amazed me is that most of them answered, that it’s a hard thing to do. I haven’t asked what they mean about “It’s a hard thing to do”, it may just mean two things, either it is hard to do or explaining it in an easy way is the hard thing that they mean. Funny isn’t it, but no matter what’s the meaning of those words, it only gives you the impression that SEO services like Web Development has a variety level of difficulty, from easy to hard and simple to complex applications and services.

According to them, you can explore a lot of stuff to work on, and it’s a very big plus if you’re creative. You get to know and understand what's behind the world of web and SEO services, to dig deeper on it, discover a lot of stuff, tools, and etc to help you create/develop websites to reach the desired goal of your SEO company. You have to be updated everyday with new syntax like codes and a no-no on obsolete tags like that stuff. But here’s a simple overview of what SEO services like web development is.

It includes Web Content, Web Design, Web security, Web Maintenance and many more to gain target viewers and it has 6 major elements that serve as a guide in Web Development processes. Take note that as an element changes, it affects other elements at the same time.

The 6 Major Elements of SEO Services:Web Development

1. Viewer or Audience Information

Knowing and taking into consideration what the audience prefer, likes and dislikes, interests and affiliates will be the primary basis of what a web developer do to the site he/she’s developing. 

2. Mission or Purpose Statement

This states the over all  mission and the  main reason of developing a web site. It may be  general and broad or a more precise and specific statement.

3. Objectives

These objectives will simply mean the goals and direction that the whole operation will take. It should be flexible for it changes most of the time.

4. Domain Information

A collection of data, knowledge and information about the subject domain that the web covers, both in terms of information provided to users of the web and information that the web developers need.

5. Web Specification

Plainly states what the web covers and its limitations. Like any other elements, web specification should be flexible to changes.

6. Web Presentation

This is how the web is presented to the public. This is the product of design and implementation process that will be discussed in the article later. 

SEO Services: Web Development Process

1. Planning

Planning will always be the first step in anything we do. For web development, planning phase is done for domain information through specifying the data that are needed and significant, and how it should be collected. 

2. Analysis

Like in research or thesis, analysis covers gathering and processing of acquired information about the web and its operation. Knowing what the audience know will generally have an effect on the information that will be provided. This reflects the first element of web development in SEO services.

3. Design

This process includes designing a small prototype or small working model. Design phase takes care of the aesthetic components, quality contents and usability of the web. 

4. Implementation

Implementation is the actual building or reconstruction of the site using HTML (HyperText Markup Language).

5. Testing

This will test the development and changes that happened to the web. Web developers usually use multiple browser compatibility, sites are tested in different browsers if there are issues. It’s also a phase of user interaction, testing all functionalities such as search, email forms, button links, etc are working.

6. Promotion

This will hold the publicity of web development. It involves formulating some marketing strategies on how to introduce the developed site. Mostly, interaction to viewers is necessary.

7. Maintenance and Innovation

SEO Services like Web development is a constant change. Various bugs and errors are fixed during maintenance phase. Web developers should be creative or artistic enough to handle all the demands that change brings.