Business Goals for 2015
Happy New Year's!
Today, I'd like to talk a little bit about goals. Every New Year's I set new goals for my business. Why goals and not resolutions? I feel like resolutions makes things sound trite. My business isn't about wishy-washy resolutions. Business is serious. If it wasn't, it would be a hobby. Also, resolutions are seen as something that can be broken. Goals aren't broken; they are something to strive for. [bctt tweet="Even if I don't succeed in a goal, the attempt moves me forward and progress is always good."]
So I set goals.
My 2014 Goals
My 2014 goals went incredibly well. Here is what I set out to do in 2014:
Quadruple my earnings from 2013. (Yup, check!)
Sell one of my websites for a profit. (Check, check! Plus, I sold extra content to the company that bought the site.)
Break 1,000 followers on Twitter. (100% organic. No bought followers!)
Revamp my website. (Look around! It's awesome!)
Business goals
My 2015 Business Goals
I not only accomplished my goals in 2014, I exceeded them. I want to continue the momentum into 2015. Here are my goals for the new year:
Create fantastic, helpful content for the readers of this blog and post it every Thursday. (Make sure to subscribe so that you don't miss a post! Just add your email to the form on the right.)
Quadruple my income from 2014. (I quadrupled my income from 2013, so why not do it again?)
Increase my online following.
I'll probably add more goals to my list as the year progresses. I like to reevaluate things as the year gets underway and add extra goals.
What are your business goals for 2015? Tell me here, or tweet me @alinabradford.
Don't Tweet with the Crowd
best tweet time
I've written 100s of tweets for my clients, but I had never been a big user of twitter for myself. Until recently.
No doubt, you've seen a lot of infographics that say that you should tweet from 1 to 3pm to get the most views. While the most people may be using Twitter during this time, that doesn't mean your tweet is getting any notice.
My daughter told me an interesting story that she learned at school the other day. Fish swim in large groups because staying in a group makes them less likely to get eaten. The predator won't be able to decide which one to eat if they all look the same and swim together.
The same is true for your tweets, or any social media post. If you are doing the same thing as everyone else, readers won't be able to pick you out of a group. People widely believe 1 to 3pm is the best time to post, so Twitter feeds are going to drowning in posts. Your post may get a few more glances during this time, but I doubt many people will click because there are too many choices.
This is why I post when experts tell you not to. Your post stands out! When I was doing tweets the "right" way I wasn't getting any likes or follows. As soon as I went against the flow, things started to happen. With each tweet I have gained at least three new followers.
5 Tips for Getting Really Good at Twitter
content marketing award
Recently, I was named one of the 2015 Top 50 Content Marketers to Follow on Twitter. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised. Before the summer of 2014, I never really bothered with Twitter. I concentrated on Pinterest, Google+ and Facebook. I struggled with Facebook after they've made so many changes and I realized that it may not be the best social media site for my type of business. So, I decided to give Twitter a shot. I mean, I had an account, I just wasn't using it. I've done plenty of Twitter work for clients. Why wasn't I using it for my own business? Well, that decision was a fantastic move. I now have more than 1,000 followers and I didn't buy a single one, either. What did I do to get so many followers and to get named as a person to follow?
1. Start Thinking Like a Follower
getting twitter followers
One of the best things I did was change my way of thinking. I'm hard headed, so this was a challenge! I stopped thinking like a business owner and started thinking like a follower. When I started posting the kind of tweets I would like to see, people took notice.
2. Don't Think too Hard
Some people can spend 30 minutes composing a tweet. No need to be fancy! Sometimes, you don't need to think too hard about a tweet. Just post the name of the article you are linking to, if the title's good. No need to reinvent when things are already great.
3. Hashtag, Hashtags, Hashtags
Always use hashtags on Twitter.
ALWAYS use hashtags. I can't stress this enough. Hashtags are how people find you. Without a hashtag your tweets are only going to be seen by your current followers and you won't pick up any new ones. Make sure your hashtag is a keyword or phrase that people are actually searching for, though. You don't want to have a useless hashtag taking up precious character space.
4. Post Throughout the Day
Post at least once in the morning, once in the evening and once at night. I find this is a good practice to catch people who visit Twitter at different times.
5. Ditch the Follower to Following Ratio
Don't worry about your followers / following ratio. Once upon a time, marketing gurus told you that your following number should be way less than your follower number. A small following number made it seem like you're an authority and people were coming in droves to follow you without any reciprocation. Notice how I'm using past tense to describe this tidbit of advice. It is no longer true.
I've found that if you don't follow back, you will get unfollowed in less than 24 hours for every 1 out of 10 follows. There are apps that allow people to find out who isn't following them back and lets them to unfollow those people with the click of a button.
I'm not saying you need to follow every single person that follows you. That would make your feed full of stuff you don't give two shriveled bananas about. If you like someone's tweets, though, follow them! You might just learn something from them.
Got any Twitter tips you would like to share? Tell me on Twitter! My not so clever Twitter handle is@alinabradford .
Cision’s Top 50 Content Marketing Influencers On Twitter List Released
One of my marketing tweets.
Here is a press release that talks about how I made it onto the top 50 Marketing Influencers on Twitter list. Make sure you follow me and the other good people listed.
By analyzing current conversations, keywords, hashtags and trending topics on Twitter, Cision identifies and ranks the most influential content marketers in the U.S.
CHICAGO (Dec. 08, 2014) – Cision, a leading provider of cloud-based public relations and social software, today released its Top 50 Content Marketing Influencers on Twitter list. According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior.” It’s one of the most prevalent modern marketing and PR tactics used by brands today, with nine out of 10 organizations utilizing it, according to a Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs study.
With the vast majority of brands implementing content marketing, experts in the field are shaping strategies and driving tactics for millions of brands worldwide. This list outlines the 50 most influential content marketers on Twitter in the U.S. as identified by Cision’s “Influencer Search” tool. This real-time tool analyzes current conversations, keywords, hashtags and trending topics on Twitter to identify and rank individuals’ influence by topic.
Influencers featured on this list have diverse professional backgrounds and includes content marketers, public relations practitioners, entrepreneurs, marketers, freelancers and more. Their combined expertise has created best-selling books, highly-respected blogs and inspirational conference keynotes that help push the public relations industry forward.
“Content marketing is a foundational component of modern PR,” said Cision Chief Marketing Officer Mark Thabit. “With audiences suffering from an overwhelming amount of content fatigue, it’s those PR pros that do content marketing right who will stand out in 2015. This list allows practitioners to easily follow, learn from and engage with the leading content marketers today.”
The top 50 social media marketing influencers on Twitter (in alphabetical order) are:
Jay Baer
Bernie Borges
Alina Bradford
Michael Brenner
David Burn
Brian Clark
Gini Dietrich
Bryan Eisenberg
Meryl K Evans
Bob Geller
Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt
Alexis Grant
Ally Greer
Lin Grensing-Pophal
Ann Handley
Ryan Hanley
Kathryn Hawkins
John Haydon
Kristi Hines
John Jantsch
Jeff Korhan
Shelly Kramer
Joe Lazauskas
Rebecca Lieb
Geoff Livingston
Kari Lloyd
Stephanie Losee
Michelle Manafy
Drew McLellan
Tabitha Naylor
Michael Neubarth
Syed Noman Ali
Lee Odden
Steve Olenski
Nancy Shonka Padberg
Ryan Petersen
Lisa Petrilli
Joe Pulizzi
Mark Ragan
Francisco Rosales
Barbara Rozgonyi
Ruben Sanchez
Mike Sansone
Neal Schaffer
Bill Slawski
Ann Smarty
Mari Smith
Stanford Smith
Denise Wakeman
Peter Winick
To learn more about each content marketing influencer, read the full analysis here.
About Cision:
Cision is a leading provider of public relations software that enables professionals to plan, execute and measure influencer-oriented campaigns in one integrated platform. Communication professionals use Cision to access the world’s largest pitchable media and blogger database, distribute press releases, manage influencer outreach, measure social media activities, and analyze the effectiveness of campaigns. Cision, which recently combined with Vocus, also represents the Gorkana Group, Visible Technologies, PRWeb, Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and iContact brands. Headquartered in Chicago, Cision has over 100,000 customers and maintains offices in Canada, England, France, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Finland and China. For more information, visit www.cision.com or follow @Cision on Twitter.
Page Views Don't Define Your Site
Your pageviews don't mean anything.
Usually, when you ask someone how their site is doing, they will say, "Oh, it's doing great! I'm getting (fill in the blank) page views!" That doesn't really answer your question, does it? But you probably do the same thing when someone asks about your site.
Let's get one thing straight. Large page view numbers doesn't ensure that you sale a lot of product. It doesn't guarantee ad clicks. The only thing it really helps is to sale ads to companies. If that isn't your focus, then you shouldn't try so hard to increase your page views. You can still make a lot of money with low page views.
stop talking about page views
You won't believe how many times I've visited SEO forums or webmaster forums to see dozens of posts that basically say the same thing: "I have more than 30,000 views per day, but only make $.17 from AdSense." It makes sense that these people are complaining or looking for help. That's big numbers with very little reward.
There are a few reasons why these website owners aren't making what they think they should be from their site.
The Revenue Style is Wrong
I've been in the content business for almost two decades and I've found that:
Content + the right revenue style = earnings
Some audiences are more responsive to ads while others are more responsive to book sales or product offers. It's possible that a site that isn't making a profit, but still has massive page views, is using the wrong revenue system.
For example, sites that focus on money saving tips do really well with ads. It seems like people who want to save money are ad clicking machines. On the other hand, sites about history or other educational subjects do really poorly when it comes to ad clicks, but they may do well selling study guides or tutoring sessions. Experimenting with the revenue methods on your site can make a big difference in how much you earn, regardless of how many clicks you get.
Their Site is Full of Crap
say no to click bait
Another reason a website owner may have great numbers but awful earnings are that the site is useless. For example, say Fred sets up a site about medical solutions for the elderly. Instead of providing helpful information and then selling a product, Fred advertises his site using click-bate tactics. Once the interested person clicks on his site, they realize that it is just a bunch of ads and useless crap. His click-bate tactics may have gotten people to his site, but they didn't click on any ads or buy a product because they could tell he was shifty in the first few seconds. People are smart. They know when a site is just there to grab their money.
You Don't Need a Lot of Page Views to Earn a LOT of Money
So you may be saying, "Okay, now I get why sites with a lot of page views may not make a lot of money, but I don't get a lot of page views. Can I still earn money from my site without impressive numbers?"
Yes! The site you're on right now is a great example! Take a look:
low pageviews
Believe it or not, this site only brings in 35 to 100 page views a month, but I have earned thousands from it this month. I bet your eyes are darting around looking the site over. Yep, there are no ads. I don't make money from ad clicks. I'm selling a product, which are my content writing services and website consultations. With such a great conversion rate I don't need to worry about how many people are coming to my site.
The reason I make so much money from such a small amount of visitors is that the people coming to my site are a highly targeted audience. I draw them here by advertising in very specific places where I know my audience lurks.
For example, I write articles for sites where web owners look for SEO and website tips. Then, I add my bio with a link to my site to the bottom of the article. Those readers who want to take their site to the next level with the help of an experienced content creator follow the link and hire me.
I also make sure to link to my site in my post signature on webmaster forums. You wouldn't believe how successful that technique has been.
The main point I'm trying to make here is this: you don't need a lot of page views to make money. What you do need to do is find a targeted audience that is craving your product, and then dangle your site in front of them as the go-to place for answers.
Trust me. It works.
Need help with your site? Take a look at what I offer or send me an email.
Tips to Make Writing Easier
I must admit. I’m a speedy writer. Not to say I don’t work hard to get stories in by their deadline, research new markets and craft queries. I just don’t like wasting time. I want to get it done and move onto the part I love, the actual writing.
Here are some ways I get to the fun part.
Reference at Your Fingertips
Everyone knows that you need a good dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, and, of course,
The Writer’s Market
. But thumbing through these can waste huge masses of time. Besides, why buy these reference books when you can easily access them on the web? This saves time
and
money!
has a dictionary and thesaurus that are quick and easy to use. All you have to do is type your word into the box on the left-hand side of the screen. The site will give you the correct spelling, synonyms, definition, and a list of related words.
Merriam and Webster Online not only has a dictionary and thesaurus, but also
Encyclopedia Britannica
for a small monthly fee. This site also helps you with research related to the words you look up by providing helpful links.
Another great reference site is Writer’s Market.com. The digital version of this long time writer’s staple offers instant access to thousands of editors and agents just for $29.99 for a six month subscription. This is a great time saver because it is constantly being updated. No more getting returned query letters because of address changes or business mergers.
Speedy Research
Doing research is one of the biggest time eaters there is for writers. Going to the library can take up a whole day. And typing random terms into search engines can be just as time consuming. Finding several sure fire research sites is the best way to maximize writing time. The key is to stay focused on your topic. Say you are looking for information on the best places to go salmon fishing. You find several great articles on salmon fishing, but a few pop up about salmon recipes. Even if you are tempted, don’t stray over to other topics that may pique you interest. Stay focused! It saves precious time that you need to write your story.
Need really detailed information like statistics or government documents for your story? Don’t shlep to your local government agency. Turn to sites like Fedstats.gov or Firstgov.gov. Fedstats.gov has statistical data, statistical profiles of states, counties, cities, congressional districts, and federal judicial districts, while Firstgov.gov has just about any other kind of information you could want related to government agencies and policies.
Do you want to have just
one
website bookmarked where you can find all the research help you could ever need? ProfNet is the ultimate online guide to Internet research. The site includes links to expert advice, reference facilities, and news, as well as help and advice columns.
Speedy Inspiration Spawners
Expending too much time and energy trying to think of ideas for the stories themselves? The Story Generator, at Freelance Writing.com, can give you the inspiration you need with the click of a mouse. Weekly it provides new ideas in the form of the latest surveys and facts. These bits of intriguing information may inspire you to give your character a new pastime or occupation, or may give you the perfect idea for an article. A recent survey about mothers getting information from the Internet gave me the idea to write an article called “Moms on the Web.”
Another terrific place to find ideas is the covers of magazines. Standing in front of a magazine stand is a great way to jog an idea loose if you are a nonfiction writer.
Try this: Go down the rack of publications and randomly pick one. What subject does the publication specialize in? Think about that subject. Say you picked the magazine
Cat Fancy
and you want to write a children’s book. Do the characters in your book have pets? Could the character be a pet? A cat? You get the idea.
Better yet, for instant inspiration, go to
and choose a number at random for quick inspiration.
Swift Enlightenment
For most of us, going to seminars and workshops is a wistful fantasy that we put off until “we get more time.” Well, the time is now, thanks to online courses that are just as easy to attend as reading an email. Many courses simply come to your email, letting you complete each lesson at your ease. Best of all, many of them are free!
Make Time Your Own
Just remember to actually
write
. The worst problem with using the internet for research is getting so distracted with email, games, and forums that no real writing gets done. Remember to focus, and to turn your web connection completely off when you are done. Leaving it on is a temptation to procrastinate. And procrastination is the worst time waster of all.
Pinterest Tip: Less is More
better pinterest marketing
Posting photos, illustrations or infographics on Pinterest is a great way to build interest and traffic for your site. Like any great seduction, though, less is more. Leave a little to the imagination. Keep those viewers wanting more so that they follow the Pinterest post to your site to feed their curiosity, ya know?
[bctt tweet="Like with any great seduction, less is more. #Pinterestmarketing tips"]
When Too Much Is Detrimental
There is a very famous women's magazine I subscribe to that uses
consistently. Usually, this would be a boon for site traffic. The magazine makes one fatal mistake over and over again, though. They make a slide show for their articles and then proceeds to pin every single photo. Folks don't need to click through to the site because they've already seen every point article had to offer.You don't have to pin all of your slideshow to make this mistake.
Infographics are a very popular item to pin. People love those suckers! The problem is that if you pin the whole infographic to Pinterest, pinners won't follow the pin to your site. Why would they? They've already read the infographic and moved on.
Become a Temptress
pinterest sharing
The answer to over sharing is to be coy about your pins. For most articles, pick a great photo and add a great description that lures the pinner to read more.
That's it!With infographics, it is as simple as this:
1. Take a screenshot of the infographic
2. Crop out 1/3 of the infographic screenshot using a photo editor
3. Pin the edited screenshot
This will make readers click through so they can read the rest. Make sure you say in the description, "Click this pin to see the whole infographic."
The next time you use Pinterest to advertise your content, just remember to ask yourself one thing:
Pinterest tips
Am I sharing too much?
Need help with social media or online content? Contact me.
What All Businesses Need to Know Before Hiring a Content Writer
link building
Want to get better ranking on search engines? Content writers can help, but there are some things you need to know. Check out this article by Erin Everhart: 7 Things I Wish Execs Knew About Link Building
How Sidekick by Hubspot Can Help You Find Work
Right now, as I'm writing this, I'm watching alerts pop up on my screen. They are telling me that a potential client is actually opening and clicking on links in the email I just sent her. I love not needing to wonder if my emails get opened and if my clip links get clicked on.
How am I spying on my clients...or anyone else I send an email to? I installed the free app Sidekick by Hubspot into my browser. It sends me alerts when people open my emails, tells me how many times they open the email and what links in the email get clicked.
This is incredibly useful because I can see what email subjects work to peak a potential client's interest, what clip links attract the most clicks, etc.
Start using this puppy right now. You'll be glad you did.
P.S. I don't get anything for telling you about this app.
384 Free Flat Icons for Your Site
Here's a little something for your site for free.
Nothing jazzes up a site more than interesting icons. Here are 384 that you can use for free on your site courtesy of Elegant Themes.
Don't say I never gave you anything.
To download them, click on the link at the bottom of this post.
Free flat icons for your website or blog.
Dynamic Views? More Like Dismal Earnings
How to make money with blogger
I like to mess around with my personal blogs to find the best way to earn. This knowledge benefits my blogs and my customers. Recently, I have been toying with Blogger's Dynamic Views blog themes.
Here's what I've found.
Your Blogger Pageviews Skyrocket
I switched from using the generic template to the Blogger Dynamic View template. These templates look very professional, so I figured they would be a great way to spruce up
. My views went up 400%. That is a fantastic jump. There's just one problem.
Your Blogger Earnings Plumet
My earnings all but stopped. I ended up just making a couple dollars per month. Pageviews are great, but not when you aren't making any money.
The earnings dropped because when you use Dynamic Views, Blogger doesn't let you add anything to the sidebars other than one Adsense block. So you can't add affiliate advertising, links to your favorite blogs, in-line advertising...nothing. I tested my earning/views with Dynamic Views on one of my other blogs (that had a completely different audience) and found the same results.
Reboot
Just to make sure this whole thing wasn't a fluke, I tried the experiment one more time. I switched back to a basic template that allowed me to customize my Blogger blog the way I wanted. The earnings went gone up 1,088% in just a week's time. Keeping with the previous results, the page views dipped to down to 1,200 per month.
So, if you also write your own blog you may want to avoid using Dynamic View templates if you want to have control over your earnings and your sidebar information. If you want more pageviews, Dynamic View is the way to go.
How Important is Social Media?
How Important is Social Media?
I've talked a lot about how to get readers get to your website through search engines. It seems like social media marketing is the latest buzz when it comes to traffic trends. Many people are reporting that social media is much more valuable for attracting people to your site. I decided to do a little research on my own. I posted an article and then tracked how my visitors found it. In my search for the truth I found something amazing.
Social Media Experiment Results
Only 25 (not 25%...just 25) people found it using Google Search after an entire month. How did the other 8,000 people find my article?
StumbleUpon and Facebook.
In fact, my article had been stumbled around 400 times. Others are reporting similar trends.
Don't Give Up on Google
What does this mean to me? To you?
It means social media is an important marketing tool. Does that mean we should stop fretting about SEO and Google's Panda and start dusting off our Facebook pages and Twitter accounts?
Hold on a sec. Don't do anything drastic.
Search traffic and social media can work together to get your site all of the traffic it deserves. After all, according to a report by Econsultancy, search engine traffic is still the way to go. 61% of people still use search engines research a product before a purchase.
Matt Cutts, of course, agrees. Take a look at this video.
Need help utilizing social media or boosting your site's traffic? Contact me.
Crappy Potential Freelance Clients
I've been really busy with clients lately. I love helping clients, but nothing gets me more steamed than potential clients wasting my time. This week I dealt with the all time, number one time waster.
First, he refused to look at my site to see what type of services I offer and wanted me to type it all out in an IM for him. Then, he told me that he had a budget of around $3,000. When I quoted him a price of $1,000 for my services, he changed his mind and told me that his budget was actually $400, but he could throw in an extra $100 if I could do the entire job. Plus, he wanted everything done ASAP and wanted an in-person meeting! Oh, and there's the charming fact that he said he wanted a local Texas writer, but wanted to pay Indian rates.
I told him what services I could provide him for $500 and that there would be no in-person meeting. I mean come on! There's no reason for an in-person when you can Skype. Besides, I'm not going to meet someone who randomly contacted me on the internet who has already lied to me.
After almost a solid week of him emailing me about how I need to help him and do his whole project ASAP, I got really fed up. I told him that instead of half up-front I required the total payment up-front. I mean if he's this big of a pain in the butt now, imagine what he'd be like during the project. After all of his emails, I didn't trust him to pay the other half, especially after he mentioned that several other writers disappointed him. Here was his response:
"Ok. Let's not start the work without any trust. If don't believe me, I don't need to believe your experience and trust.
Thanks knowing you and willingness to work with me.
All the best!"
Well, let's see, dude. I have tons of references and screenshots on my site, proving my professionalism and I have tons of publishing credits. What do we know about you? That you are super unprofessional in your IMs and emails and expect someone with more than 16 years of experience to work for chicken scratch.
I just can't get over his nerve.
Why I Hate Female Equality Toy Marketing
Today, I'm going to talk a little about marketing. I figure with the holidays coming up in a few months, this is a great time. Okay, I've been noticing a disturbing trend. Toy companies are coming out with "boy toys" painted pink and are branding them as "girl toys." Not only that, but they are claiming that this is an amazing step towards gender equality and they are happy to lead the way. Umm, huh? For example, have you seen the Nurf Rebelle toys? They are basically the same foam shooting toy guns Nurf has always had, but now they're pink. So girls can play with them.
Girls don't need pink!
Newsflash Nurf! We girls have been playing with the original orange and yellow guns for decades. I guess we weren't aware we couldn't play with them unless they were pink. Not only that, the f-ing name is Rebelle instead of Rebel. Isn't that cute? They made a tough boy name into a name that sounds more girly. Awe. (By the way, that's my daughter on the left. Note the color of her Nurf gun. She HATES pink.) Then, there is another big headline grabber called Goldieblox. This toy was designed to encourage girls to become engineers by giving them a lame building set that isn't near as cool or as useful as all the other building sets on the market. Oh, but wait! It comes with storybooks that have a girl as the hero. That will keep the recipients of this toy from tossing it aside for something more interesting, like, say, Legos or K'nex.
There are three major problems with girl toys that are designed to break down gender barriers. First, we girls have been playing with "boy toys" for decades! I don't think I have ever heard a girl, armed with a Super Soaker, say, "Gee, I wish they made these for girls." You know why? Because for most of us girls that were born after 1975 didn't think about whether a toy was meant for girls. If it was cool, we played with it. Period.
Second, you know why some girls don't play with Legos or toy trucks? Because they genuinely like dolls and pink things better. It's not that hard of a concept.
Third, the only people who create gender barriers for little girls are grownups. Thankfully, my
That's me with my race car. Notice how it isn't pink?
parents and grandparents didn't subscribe to the whole girls should play with this and boys should play with that bullhocky. One of my first toys was a yellow, metal Tonka dump truck that I played in the dirt with for hours. Note how it wasn't pink or targeted towards girls. I also had dolls, princess dresses, race cars, building sets and a science kit. Yup, that's me, in the early 80s, riding on my race car toyI didn't grow up thinking something had to be pink or named with a cutesy name before I could play with it. I guess that's my whole point. Girls don't need special toys. They need special parents that don't care what color a toy is or what an advertisement says. Throw all kinds of toys at your kids, both boys and girls, and see what THEY like.
And for Pete's sake, if you daughter picks up a toy hammer and your son picks up a Barbie, don't squeal about how progressive you are or how they are making great choices. Just let kids be freaking kids already and forget about labels.
How Not to Use Social Media: A Case Study Using Amy's Baking Company
How not to use social media!
Many business owners want to know how to use social media to build their business. I like teaching by example, so let's take a look at a company that not only did the wrong thing very publicly, they continue to do it.
How Not to Use Social Media for Your Brand
Back in May of 2012, on the reality show Kitchen Nightmares, Chef Gordon Ramsey visited Amy's Baking Company. The couple refused to listen to any advice he had to give, admitted to taking their server's tips and generally acted in a very unprofessional manor, which included yelling at customers.
Upset viewers posted their concerns on the business' Facebook page and the owners of Amy's Baking Company decided to let their crazy flag fly. They are the living demonstration of how not to run your Facebook page. Since most of the replies have been deleted now, here are some replies the owners posted on the page:
TO REDDIT. I FORBID YOU FROM SPREADING YOUR HATE ON THAT SITE. THIS IS MY FACEBOOK, AND I AM NOT ALLOWING YOU TO USE MY COMPANY ON YOUR HATE FILLED PAGE.
To all of the Yelpers and Reddits: Bring it on. you are just pussies. come to arizona. you are weaker than my wife, and weaker than me. come to my business. say it to my face. man to man. my wife is a jewel in the desert. you are just trash. reddits and yelpers just working together to bring us down. pathetic.
WE DO NOT NEED THIS. YOU STUPID PEOPLE. AMERICA IS ABOUT RESSLING, IT IS NOT A BIG DEAL. THE CAKES WE OFFER ARE EXPENSIVE BECAUSE WE HAVE TO REPACKAGE AND SHIP. DO NOT BLAME US BECAUSE YOU CAN NOT AFFORD QUALITY. THE YELPERS, AND NOW THE REDDITS, NEED TO BACK OFF. YOURE NOT RIGHT JUST BECAUSE OF SOME TV SHOW
This is Samy. I am keeping note of all names here. We will be pursuing action against you legaly, and against reddit and yelp, for this plot you have come together on. you are all just punks.
The Break Down
Let's break down the mistakes made here:
They call people names
They use all-caps
They misspell words
They don't capitalize words
They threaten to sue the thousands of people who have commented on their page, which isn't possible.
Even though they deleted a lot of what went on back in May, they continue to make these same mistakes. Currently, they are using their business page to discredit Yelp. If you have a personal beef with another company, please, for the love of Pete, don't hash it out on your business' social media!
They seem to be going out in like Cook Source Magazine. Remember them? If not, here is the skinny:
UPDATE: Then there was that time they chased a customer with a knife:
UPDATE: Amy's has gone out of business. No surprise, there.
How to Get Free Clients for Your Business
Make a note to get more free clients.
Lately, I've been getting what I like to call "free" clients. These are free clients that you don't have to look for. They just fall into your lap. No cold calling. No emails. Nadda.
So How Did I Get These Free Clients?
My website. Yup, the one you're looking at right now. These clients found my website and from the information on it, and nothing else, they wanted to hire me. That's the power of a great writer's website. Want to know my secrets to a great site that draws in free clients?
Nix the Hosting Ads
No hosting sponsored ads. If your website has ads that are place willy-nilly by your hosting service because you are getting free hosting, that's a sure sign you're a novice because you can't afford to buy a domain name and a proper site.
Get Good Content
Make sure your site has content. It shouldn't just have a couple sentences about what you can do and your email. Fill that sucker up with your resume, quotes from happy customers and plenty of information on why a client should hire you. Search engines need words to figure out what your site is about so it can present it to people who are searching. No words, no visitors. Take a stroll around my site. Notice how each page is chock full of information?
Give Your Visitors Choices
I like to offer a range of services. I know some will tell you to find a niche and stick to it. That's not my bag and it works for me. I offer business owners text and image content services, consultations and classes. My point is, don't be afraid to present all of the services you're qualified to offer. I've had people tell me this is wrong and I should make separate landing pages for each offering. Hey, what I'm doing works. You can't argue with results.
K.I.S.S.
Keep your site clean and organized to make it easy for potential clients to find the information they need quickly and easily. Don't bunch all your information together on one page. I can't tell you how much I hate going to a site and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to find the information I need. So, I break my site up into sections for easy navigation. There's a Hire Me page, a page for my resume, a page for my editing and critique service, a page for my clips and a page for my illustrations.
Post a Photo
Add a photo of yourself. The other day, I had someone make this comment about my site, "The Logo. Why do you keep your picture there? If you say you're a good illustrator try to make an illustration of yourself, and integrate nice with the wording (sic)." Why indeed? I feel using a picture helps you come across as a real person and not just some faceless entity that wants money on the web. The key is to make it a professional looking image. No selfies!
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New SEO Tips That Will Give Your Site Google Mojo
Get some Google love!
So your site was hit by Panda. Then it was hit by Penguin. Then, Hummingbird came along. Don't worry, all is not lost, my friend. It's just that the old SEO techniques that you've used over the past few years need to be thrown out the window and replaced with ones that work after these three major algorithms changes. The beautiful part about new SEO is that the changes will make your site look more professional and they will be more likely to weather new Google algorithms.
Go Long!
For years, people have been saying, "Only post content that is between 350 and 500 words. Search engines like short because no one will take the time to read longer pieces." This simply is not true! There are people out there craving in-depth information, and after Hummingbird, the sites providing large slices instead of little tastes are getting Google love.
Entrepreneurial genius Neil Patel recently did some research on this. He found that pages with over 2,000 words had higher page rankings. The higher the word count, the higher they ranked. You can read his entire post here: How Content Length Affects Rankings and Conversions.
Pretty shocking, huh?
Now, just adding words to your content isn't going to cut it, either. Each piece needs to be chock full of interesting, engaging and helpful information. For example, you could write a quick how-to blog post or you can give your reader the how-to, the whys, upkeep tips, advice on where to find supplies, etc. To keep it all engaging, use your voice. Talk to the reader like you would a good buddy. Stiff and business-like text is what bores readers, not long text.
Link Love
You used to hear that having people link to your site was the key to getting more Google love. This is still true, but giving others link love is almost as helpful, now. Add a couple of outgoing links to content to get search engine friendliness. These links will help add usefulness to your article by referring readers to information they need. That's why Google likes sites that offer outgoing links.
Grab the Mojo by the Tail
Another old SEO tip was to fill your content with short keywords that people may use to find your article. People took this to heart and created content so full of keywords it was a bunch of gibberish. Panda was almost solely created to wipe out sites that overused keyword stuffing.
Not only is keyword stuffing out, short keywords are also out. It is all about long-tail keywords now. That's right, the keywords that everyone told you not to bother with before are now the key players in the search engine game.
So from now on, don't think of keywords, per say, think of phrases. For example, one website I used to do a lot of SEO work for focused on drawing techniques. One of the most popular terms used to find articles on the site weren't "drawing" or "art," it was "how use oil pastels." The article I wrote to draw in people who searched for that term reaped over 100,000 views, which is a massive amount for art related content. Even back before Panda, phrases were a great way to draw in traffic for sites that typically weren't big traffic pullers.
Be Organic
Like I mentioned before, keyword stuffing is the death of website content. SEO should come organically, meaning, don't worry about jamming your article full of keywords. If a keyword ends up in your article, great, but don't plan to put a certain keyword in every hundred words or whatever. If it happens it happens. Search engines are smart enough to find your content without all the keywords.
Seize People's Attention
Bounce rates have always been important to search engines, now more than ever. A bounce rate is the percentage of people that leave your site after visiting only one page. There are plenty of ways to lower your bounce rate and encourage your visitors to head on over to other parts of your site:
· Separate your long content into two or three pages so that your visitor has to click to the second page to read to the end of the content
· Add a "For more information" box at the bottom of a blog post or article that links to content on related topics
· Add a list of your most popular content to the sidebar of your blog or site to entice readers to click
Google+ to Boost Google's Ego
Adsense google plus scorecard
Nobody loves Google more than Google. This is evidenced by the fact that using Google+ gives your site the green flag on the AdSense webpage. To get the full Plus experience:
· Add a Google+ badge to your site
· Make a Google+ page for your site
· Add your site to your links on your personal Google+ account
· Get Google Authorship (This was phased out.)
· Share new posts on your Google+ page Now that you know the new SEO rules, you're ready to make Google fall in love with your site all over again. Turn on some Barry White and get to work!
Businesses Shouldn't Burn Bridges
Don't set fire to business relationships!
I frequent many forums. I like to lurk, absorbing the knowledge that my peers type about companies and publishers.
Recently, though, I stumbled upon a thread full of angry writers. The writers all freelanced for a publication that I wrote for, as well. The publication had decided to essentially put all freelance projects on hold while they sorted out financial issues. I understood and was patiently waiting to hear if I would get to work with them again.
The group of writers in this thread didn’t feel the same. Many threatened the company with a smear campaign. Others posted hateful diatribes directed at the editors of the publishing company. Many declared that they would never write for the company again.
This company had been good to their writers. They always paid on time and offered extra incentives for hard work. I had to wonder if these angry writers were shooting themselves in the foot with this public display of angst.
You see, as a freelance writer for over 15 years, I have learned to take everything in stride. I know the value of holding my temper and not burning bridges.
When I first started my writing career I went to work for a small company as a freelance article writer. This company was bought out only months after I started writing for them. They told their writers that they would be handing out work again within a month’s time. I didn't hear from them (other than a "wait and see" letter) for more than a year. Instead of sending them a hateful I’m-Tired-of-Waiting email or ranting about them on forums, I took work with other companies.
Then, one day they emailed me out of the blue and offered me a fantastic opportunity. The job took me about thirty minutes and I got paid $100. Since then, I have worked for them consistently for two years and have made thousands of dollars.
Another time that I could have burned bridges was when a publication wouldn’t answer my emails. I had worked with this publication for around a year and they paid well. Plus, I loved the work. Suddenly, though, I stopped receiving emails from my editor. Did I send a heated email? No, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Turns out, my email system was blocking their emails even though I had them on my safe list. After the problem was solved I continued writing articles for them and made a lot of money.
Even though that editor wasn’t the problem, many are. I’ve dealt with some real jerks in my time. One of my first editors, for example, was a piece of work. She’d rarely answer her emails and when she did she would give me one sentence answers that didn’t even address what I had asked in the first place. Then, when I emailed her again, she would give me very snotty responses. I remained civil and, though I was tempted, I didn’t go over her head and create a situation with her boss. Many writers will tell you this is a mistake. My theory is that no editor stays at a publication for very long. You don’t need to waste your writing time fighting the system, it will change soon enough. Sure enough, a few months later a new editor took her place and that publication is still one of my best sources of income.
Moral of the story? Making connections is hard. Don’t make your life harder by burning bridges. You may need that customer or B2B connection again and it is easier to keep a connection than to make a new one.