Archive for the 'Advertising' Category
Getting other bloggers to write about you, your company, your product, or really anything that might benefit you can be very tricky. Follow these steps and your likely good of being mentioned in other blogs will greatly increase.
Personalize the email: Don’t just copy and paste or mass email blogs. You’ll want to include:
the bloggers name, something unique and relevant to their blog, the actual pitch, how to get more information, and finally the signature.
Be active on their blog: Be a value to their community and the blogger will likely respond with value. Provide comments on posts, blog about them, join their communities, and send occasional emails.
Make sure it’s relevant: If the blogger has mentioned something similar before, then it’s probably relevant.
Follow up: Write another email in 1-2 weeks asking if they have any questions or would like additional information. However, make sure you are not annoying, but persistent.
Bonus: If they do blog about you, make sure you: comment on the post, send a thank you email, link from your “in the press” page, and still continue to be an active part of their community.
If you’re interested in having us do a blogger outreach for you, be sure to get a quote - it’s free!
One of the most popular social media question answering services that operate on a peer to peer basis is Yahoo Answers. The participants in Yahoo Answers engage in asking and answering queries in a very wide variety of topics. Once posted, the other participants can vote for their favorites and thus end up with a ranking system.
Of greatest interest to the link builder is that these queries are constantly being indexed by Google, thus posts on Yahoo Answers can form a valid part of your overall link building process.
Yahoo Answers is quite particular about the site not being used for self-promotional purposes however as in many other sites it’s all a matter of degree. A reasonable measure of self-promotion is overlooked if the information that you are providing to the site is accurate and informative.
As per normal procedures required to build a network of quality links, it is important to submit quality and accurate information and not just meaningless spammy content. Fortunately there are no rules to prohibit linking back to your own website in the “Source” area if there is pre-existing legitimate content on your site that can provide valuable additional information to the topic being queried.
A very frequent abuse of the Yahoo Answers process is to have an associate post a question which is derived from your own site so that you can jump in, provide the answer and the link to just the appropriate amount of additional information. That tactic can only work for so long, as sooner or later someone will realize that what you’re doing is shameless self-promotion and then the jig will be up.
Contests are the time-honored way to get attention in the press, in broadcast and now in the online world of marketing. You don’t have to start giving away sportscars and private jets. A giveaway of a simple prize worth a few hundred dollars should be enough to be worth many times its cost in link benefits. If you are on good terms with a manufacturer or supplier, you may find that they may be amenable to even donating the prize for free in exchange for prominent mention. That not only saves you the money of buying the item, but it also helps immensely by generating links from the manufacturer’s site.
A great way to advertise your contest, is by utilizing paid review websites. While the concept is fairly new and just becoming mainstream thanks to websites like ReviewMe and Sponsored Reviews, blog reviewing is proving itself to be great link builders. In addition to a link, you can usually expect some referral traffic and long-term branding as well.
The cost of a review is usually between $40 and $750. The better the statistics of the blog are, the more it costs for a review. The three largest factors are Technorati ranking, Alexa ranking, and estimated subscribed RSS readers. I also suggest taking a look at the pagerank, pasts posts, and the average number of comments per post.
I suggest finding a blog that has a pagerank of at least 4 to do a review if your sole focus is link building and organic search engine optimization. If you are looking for quality feedback from a well-known industry professional and decent traffic, then I suggest paying a little more and getting a quality review from a respected blog.
Now that Facebook applications can be put on any website, the time is now to make your app, whether it be to promote your website or just make a few extra bucks. This post covers the basics and is meant to been an introduction to researching, creating, launching, advertising, and making money from Facebook applications.
Researching your app:
Be sure to do the proper research on your target market and Facebook users. We previously wrote a post on Facebook stats, that is a must read before making any application.
Your application should be:
1. Viral = users should WANT to invite their friends to join the app. 
Top Friends and Hobo Wars are great examples.
2. Exciting = an exciting or fun app will kee users coming back and help your long term retention rate.
3. Unique = there are a ton of applications out there, so do some research and make sure your application is unique or at least separates itself from the competition somehow.
Creating your app:
There are a few options when creating your application. The most obvious is to just code it yourself, but companies like Facebookster can create your app for you. Additionally, websites like Clearspring can assist you in the coding process, especially if you are new. The Facebook Developers section also has documentation, resources, and tools to help you forge through the process of creating your app.
Launching your app:
Some applications can require a dedicated server and since some may grow very quickly, it is often difficult to forecast server demand. That’s one of the reasons Amazon launched their AWS for Facebook Applications hosting.
I’d also strongly recommend tying your application to a website. By also having a website, you’ll be able to capture brand search traffic in search engines for the application as well as use the website for updates, news, community involvement, and an additional revenue stream.
Be sure to fully test your application. There is almost nothing worse than launching the app and having the early adopters frustrated and leave.
Advertising your app:
After making sure the app is bug free and when the app is ready to be launched, you should:
- Install it yourself and invite your friends.
- Tell your friends to invite their friends.
- Contact relevant blogs and ask them to blog about the app.
- Create a Facebook group and fan page.
- Advertise on Facebook.
- List the application in the application directory.
Making money from your app:
There are numerous ways to make money from your application. You can insert affiliate links and banners from cj.com, sell private advertising, or insert ads from a network. Most ads should be placed on the app landing page, not the actual app itself (though, it seems it’s fairly acceptable to include a small link in the app on the profile). A specialized solution for making money from your application is fbExchange, which lets you trade, sell, or buy clicks from your application or others.
Thanks to Luke from Kinoli, Virtual Marketing Blog, and Free Shipping for the post idea.
Advertisement: Feel like creating your application is a little overwhelming? No problem! Freezing Hot can be a project manager and help launch your application and get it in front of millions of users. Go over and get a quote so we’ll be in touch!
Viral videos, or videos have spread like wildfire around the internet spreading you “word”, have increased dramatically over the past year with the increase in video sharing website and broadband access. BusinessWeek* reported that spend on viral video promotion is now in excess of $100million a year.
“Done right, a ‘viral’ video can get a brand in front of millions of viewers, even boosting sales.” Dan Carlin, BusinessWeek
The video’s Freezing Hot has promoted have been written about on on: Advertising Age, Adrants, Techcrunch, LA Times, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Complex Magazine, YouTube frontpage, and many other media publications.
The cost for the service is $3,000 (or $.05/video view) and takes 4 weeks to complete.
In addition to the promotion, Freezing Hot also offers consulting (at competitive rates) on content, call to action, length, etc of viral videos.
Check out the new viral video promotion page.
VistaPrint is having a major 30-60% off their already low prices. I ordered 250 custom business cards with the Freezing Hot logo in foil. The total cost was less than $20, they were here in a week, and they look awesome! I’ve handed a few out to potential clients with great feedback. You can also order 1000 premium cards (without foil) for less than $8. Now that’s a pretty good deal.
So now you’ve got hundreds of business cards and aren’t sure what to do. Well, the easiest thing to do is just carry them around with you AT ALL TIMES. Make a habit of giving 5 out per week to people you meet. Tell them that if they aren’t interested to pass it along to someone who may. Leave the card in the fishbow/card drop at local small businesses - they might see it an be interested. Give some to your friends and tell them to pass it out as well.
In addition to ordering business cards, I also ordered Freezing Hot t shirts. At $4.50 each, I just could resist ordering 10 of them. Like the business card, make sure the shirts have a little information - like the url and what you offer. I’m also eventually going to send some off to higher profile bloggers in hopes of them taking a picture in the t shirt and posting it on their blog along with a link.
Make sure you hurry up and order from VistaPrint. I’m not sure how much longer the sale is going to last.
Quizzle, launched by Quicken Loans, is a free website that makes it simple to understand your home and money - in a single spot. Cool, considering many Americans are actually in the wrong mortgage.
In fact, the website allows you to manage your:
- Credit
- Monthly Budget
- Home Value
- Mortgage
- Rainy Day Fund
After browsing through the site, I’ve very impressed. The interface is clean and it looks like they’ve really spent some time on this website. Probably the most useful information is a free credit report. They also give you a nifty “Quizzle Score” so you see how you’re doing.
They also have a mortgage blog (which I’m subscribed to) that takes all the industry news and mumbo-jumbo and makes it easy to understand.
Quizzle is a great example of how a company can offer something new, unique, and useful (and even free in this case) and use it as a marketing technique. I’m glad Quicken Loans cares not only about it’s customers, but ANYONE with a mortgage. Go Quicken Loans!
Here’s a screenshot of the demo:
According to the Search Engine Journal, Google has begun running click to all ads within adwords (search ads) once again. The feature launched in 2005, but was phased out. Seems as it’s being phased back in. Why? My guess is that Google is recognizing the power of cell phones (especially the iPhone) and realizing that a one touch to call through a cell phone can be a pretty powerful revenue generator in the future. Well see if it sticks.
View Video
A little weird, right? Well I, and Techrunch, both agree that this celebrity bloggers speeddate event made for great content and link bait. Great way to show off your services, get some blog coverage, and have some fun.
According to a great Independent article, Facebook has dropped (or at least added new options) to its highly-controversial Beacon. It works like this, according to the Independent:
The system exploits the power of “word of mouth” marketing. Online retailers can embed the Beacon code into their websites so that when Facebook users visit sites to buy products or services, details appear in an individual’s Facebook news feed, which can then be viewed by all the user’s Facebook friends. In return for feeding the data back to Facebook, the other websites get a free advertisement for their services.
The article went on to say:
Following the bad press, Facebook told its 55 million users on Thursday that it was backing down over the scheme. It is giving users “more control” over the Beacon stories published on their news feeds, and they will have to approve Beacon alerts individually before they appear on their profiles. “We recognise that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they have a story published,” Facebook said. “We will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.”
This is a big blow to Facebook, but a big win for users who want more privacy. We’ll see more and more of this in the future, but hopefully privacy concerns are taken more seriously. This is Facebook’s 2nd major privacy lapse.
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