Archive for July, 2007

Looking at my blog history here, I realize that I am not going to win any blogging awards for Q1/Q2 of 2007. I am setting a record today with three posts, knowing that I will likely do little blogging in August, as I relocate to Mesa, AZ. It’s been a challenging year for my wife and I as she has been suffering for nearly all of this year with adrenal fatigue. The good news is that she continues to improve, and we expect a full recovery as we relocate to a reduced stress environment where we have the family support that we do not have here.

So, on to the post.

Do you know how to get FREE market research from Yahoo! Answers? I picked up on the fact that people tend to ask the same questions over and over within certain categories (lots of questions with regard to Internet Marketing and SEO). SEO stuff aside, what you need to do is go to Yahoo! Answers, find the category that relates to your field, and see what questions people are answering. Look for trends (and you will certainly find them).

Next, you need to offer the solution, but not directly as that will violate Yahoo! Answers TOS. What you need to do is offer the solution from somewhere on your website or blog and as you give your answer, cite the web site or blog as the source. Now, Yahoo may figure this out and get rid of the source field, but enjoy it while it lasts. I have seen reasonable traffic come from Yahoo! Answers with minimal effort and have even had people contact me directly through my web site to follow up.

It’s all the talk in PPC. In an effort to gain search engine market share, Microsoft has added Ask.com to its growing list of sites showing ads from its paid search network.

More info can be found here:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201001806

Lots of news and updates today. I just received this email:

We are very pleased to announce that R.H. Donnelley, one of the nation’s leading Yellow Pages and online local commercial search companies, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Business.com.

Business.com will now be part of R.H. Donnelley Interactive (RHDi). We are excited about the synergies between our businesses, and the opportunities for you to benefit from the strengths of the combined companies.

What does this mean for you and your Business.com campaign? We remain deeply committed to the Business.com mission – to help business decision makers quickly find everything they need to manage and grow their businesses, and enable advertisers to reach them across the business Internet. We will, of course, keep you updated about any new products or features as they become available.

Thank you again for your business, and we look forward to continuing to deliver what you need to optimize your business-to-business search marketing ROI.

For more details on the acquisition, here is a link to the press release.
Sincerely,

Amos Schwartzfarb
VP, Sales and Client Services
Business.com

Lately, I have been using the Yahoo! Answers forum as a means of promoting web sites. You can’t directly promote a site, but there are ways to do it in a subtle manner so as to not upset the powers that be. For one site, I have seen nearly 10% of the monthly traffic come from Yahoo! Answers, with very minimal effort.

In my travels in their forums, I did find out one of the things that Yahoo! Answers is helping people do. CHEAT! I had seem lame posts where people will ask for help with their homework, and others where people ask for help coming up with slogans or naming a business (talk about free marketing consulting) but for the most part I ignored them.

As I perused the forum, I found this Q&A dialog between Yahoo staff and a Yahoo! Answers member:

(submitted by stevenp9891)
Q: I’m constantly seeing multiple questions from single users that sound like they’re straight out of a text book or worksheet. It’s annoying when people try and cheat on their assignments with Yahoo Answers. There should be an option on the Abuse page for Cheaters or at least have a maximum number of questions a person can post every hour (like 2 or 3) and a daily limit.

(by Yahoo! Answers employee Katie)
A: It is not a violation of the community guidelines or the Terms of Service to use Yahoo! Answers for help with your homework. You have the option not to answer a question if you do not want to, but if you chose to answer it your post must also be within the community guidelines and the Terms of Service.

To prove that I didn’t make this up, here is the URL to the dialog: http://suggestions.yahoo.com/detail/?prop=answers&fid=23929

PRWeb.com is a great web site and used by many to distribute press releases. The problem with most people doing press releases is that they have a misconception that all you have to do is write a press release, submit it to a press release site (such as PR Web), and sit back and wait for journalists to call them. It has happened, but it is RARE that it happens that way. I will give you several reasons why your press release may not have given you the record sales day that you expected:

1. Wrong Outreach. Most seasoned journalists don’t get their news from online press release sites. That’s not to say that can’t, but you are FAR better off developing media contacts within your industry, or the industry that you are trying to promote your product or service in. Your message will also go much farther when it is received by a key journalist or media contact in an industry, rather than by small time bloggers looking for content. The ultimate is to get major press coverage from the all coveted Wall Street Journal.

2. Mixed Messages. Your press release has to target your market in its copy (clearly) without sending mixed messages.

3. Poorly Written Press Release. Enough said. Few solid editors or journalists will take time to read a poorly written press release; it most likely will get overlooked.

4. Unedited Press Release. Get an Editor. Even if it’s a non professional editor, a second set of eyes can do wonders. You can also ask them if your message is clear or ask them to summarize what they think they just read.

5. Not Compelling Enough. You need to use a compelling headline (title), as that is often all the chance you get to make your point. When writing a press release, what I have done is take time and write out my message and then think of several ways to present it. For example, my message here is “you can’t just write a press release and submit it to a press release web site”. So I came up with the following headlines, which I have rated on a scale of 1-5 by controversy & curiosity factors and also made a notation as to “why someone may or may not care”.

1. PR Does Not Stand For Press Release – 2 (it actually does, right?)

2. Press Releases Don’t Work – 3 (not for most people)

3. Press Releases: What are you missing – 1 (will I really learn something new here?)

4. Never Send Another Press Release Without Reading This – 0 (yawn…)

5. How to Get Journalists to Read Your Press Release – 2 (I don’t believe this, I’ve heard this before)

6. How to Get Massive Web Traffic from Your Press Release – 1 (yeah, right)

7. Does your Press Release Suck? (If no one called you, it did) – 2 (how unprofessional, he used the word “suck”)

8. Why Didn’t Your Press Release Work? – 2 (I don’t care anymore)

9. My Press Release Made ME a Million Dollars Did Yours? – 1 (I am sure you are going to sell me something)

10. How I made $50,00 with ONE Press Release – 2 (I don’t believe you)

11. This could put PRWeb out of Business – 3 (I doubt it… you’re trying to bait me)

12. Why PRWeb Might Go Out Of Business – 4 (well, I am curious.. tell me)

I have numbered them in the event that you want to let me know which one you think my have worked better.

The best part of this is that I actually changed the Title AND the message after doing that exercise. To do good PR, you don’t have to make controversy, but boy it can get you some attention – perhaps the attention you don’t want. In fact, I will let you all know if PRWeb contacts me.

Truly, I don’t think PRWeb will go out of business, because not enough people will take the time to do the work to make their PR campaigns effective. They’ll keep playing the “PR Lottery”, and most won’t have the knowledge… unless you send them this blog post

I will close with my original title and say that “PR doesn’t stand for press release”, it stands for Public Relations. Relations are about relationships not press releases (that’s worth money if you get it).

Have a safe and Happy 4th, and Happy belated Canada Day to my friends up north.

- OldSchool