In the last post we talked about keywords and anchor text. Creating your anchor text is as easy as 1-2-3 with Hyperlink Creator (also referred to as Hyperlink Maker). There’s nothing fancy about it, it just does its job…which I like. You simply enter in the URL you want to link to, then enter the keywords you want linked to that URL and click "Build Link". Voila! You’re done! You can simply copy and paste from within the program or you can choose to "Copy to Clipboard". It’s a good idea to save a file with the links you build because you should be using these links over and over again. This will save you from having to re-create them time and time again. Oh, and yes, it’s free. All the better! Force 5, the makers of, offer some great internet marketing tools like Comment Hut which is a fast and easy way to find specific blogs and comment on them…backlinks, backlinks, backlinks! There’s a free version and a paid version. I definitely recommend the paid version – there are many more benefits and it’s worth the low fee but the free version will also help you a bit if you don’t want to put the money out or if you want to check it out first. This is a tool many top marketers have in their arsenal. I’ll tell you all about their fancy little tools even if they won’t! Of course when commenting on blogs, as always, keep it relevant. Don’t be a spammer, it’s so unattractive and in all actuality you’ll reap less results in the end than if you keep your content and contributions good and relevant. Your spammy comment certainly won’t pass muster here, and I highly doubt it will on most other blogs. Askimet and "delete" to the rescue!!! If you know of other hyperlink makers or internet marketing tools, please share them here =) Karen J. for Contemporary VA

In the last post, we talked bout SEO. We mentioned, in passing, the Google Adwords program. Google has become a household name. Suddenly, over the last decade, when you need information about something, you “Google” it. People are googling everything. Potential clients are googling when they need to find a resource, service or tool. It’s so easy to take advantage of all the traffic that Google is getting these days. There are many methods in which to direct this traffic toward you. One is to create an adwords account for your business. To do this, go to the Adwords site, and sign up. Signing up is free, however, ad clicks will cost you. The Adwords program allows you to select and analyze potential keywords to maximize the traffic your website will get. The system will suggest keywords for you, and you can even view the number of times people have searched for that keyword over the last 30 days along with the average number of monthly searches. Then, you will write your ad. You’ll have 3 lines of text available, so be sure to read the information Google offers on creating an effective ad. You’ll want to be savvy and get people’s interest. Next, you will have to decide where your ad will appear. Do you want it to appear just when a person searches for a keyword, or would you also like it to appear on other websites that are related to your site. These two options are called “search” and “content,” respectively. You will then have the option to select a budget. You can choose either a monthly or daily budget. Also, you will need to choose a maximum cost per click (CPC) that you are willing to pay. For some keywords, a small amount will be fine, but for others, with a great deal of competition, you may have to pay more per click to get your ad seen. As long as you’re new to Adwords, you can get a few free dollars for your account which is nice to do a little test run but it usually isn’t much so if you only use the free money, your free test may not tell you much but you can get a feel for it this way. (Monitor it closely because once that free money is gone, the costs are charged to your account.) Just do a search for "free adwords coupon", "free adwords voucher" and/or similar keywords to find a coupon. You can edit your ad, keywords, and budget as often as you like. And you can check on the number of clicks your ad is receiving per day. The information is almost real-time, with a delay of about 3 hours. The downside? Yes, there is potentially a downside. Be very careful to monitor your account while you’re new to Adwords. Remember, each time your ad is clicked, you incur costs but this doesn’t necessarily mean you will profit from these clicks. Monitor your account closely to determine if you’re actually making a profit from your ad as opposed to just putting out money with no real return. This does happen. You have to weigh it against your goals. Most people’s goal includes driving the traffic to their site in order to make a profit on their product or services. If you find that you’re incurring costs that don’t bring you any real profit, reevaluate. It could be that your site needs a revamp; it is often the content that sells the product or service. So, while it won’t necessarily be the fault of Adwords if you’re not making enough of a profit to be willing to continue the paid campaign, it may not be a good suit for you, at least at the current time. Many beginning marketers simply do not have a ton of money to pour into this type of advertising and that’s PERFECTLY okay. On top of it, most beginning marketers need to feel their way around different avenues, possibly sharpen up their copy, and figure out what works best for them. When I got started in internet marketing, I read some ‘get cash fast online’ type of deal and it said ’slap up an Adwords ad and you’ll make some quick money’. Literally, that’s what it said. And said it quite enthusiastically. Ummm, it didn’t quite work out that way! I actually ended up spending more money on my campaign than I profited. But, that was very likely related to my inexperienced copy and technique. Some beginners do well with this marketing method, others do not. Many more-advanced marketers do quite well with Adwords. If you have a widely utilized business, service or product, you may also do very well with this method. Bottom line, it can certainly be a good avenue to pursue but you need to monitor it very closely, particularly in the beginning, to ensure that it’s working for you and not just costing you. The costs can add up quickly if you’re not careful – which is a great thing if you’re making decent money with the ads, but it’s not such a great thing if you really aren’t seeing your money come back to you. Lisa and Karen J. on behalf of Contemporary VA

Although the US elections are over, there are still very important lessons to learn. What we saw in these elections is the unprecedented use of internet marketing as a strategic tool. In fact, Barack Obama used text messages as an important part of his communication plan. He notified his supporters of his running mate choice, asked his supporters to reply with demographic data (zip codes) and urge recipients to vote. What’s equally important is that his supporters loved getting his text messages and signed up in droves to keep getting important information.

As a business, you can also use text messages to give your customers one to one marketing messages designed to meet their specific needs. And because your customers generally carry their cell phones with them during their waking hours, you can know that they are actually receiving important messages.

Uses
Unlike email where your message may be filtered out or you must wait for your customer to login and read the message, you can use text messages and instantly reach your subscription base.

In business, text messages are primarily used as an alert system or when timing is critical. Some businesses use this method to announce impromptu sales. Others use to notify customers when certain thresholds are met in their account (such as having enough sales to quality for a 10% discount). And still others use to announce new product offerings or notifications for special events.

Text Message basics
Like email, you should always follow proper protocol. Use an opt-in service so your customers can knowingly sign up to receive text messages. Because most customers read every text message they receive and because some customers have to pay for incoming text messages, it is even more important to only send messages they are interested in.

Text messaging is a one-to-one marketing tool. You need to customize the message and the delivery to be as close to your customers needs as possible. When allowing customers to opt in, make sure they can select the activities that are more important to them. Letting the customer be in full charge of the messages they receive not only lets the customer know how important they are to you, but also caters specifically to their unique needs.

Composing the Message
Because text messages are, by their very nature, short and simple, keep your communication short and simple. Do not add extra links or use fluff language. You can always follow up the text message with an email message that contains more information or ask your customers visit a web page for more information on what you’ve sent out.

Give out enough information to alert the customer that something important is happening and where they can go to get more information. Adding too much text will only turn your customers off and make them unsubscribe from your notices.

Carrier basics
When sending a text message, you can use a specialized service or simply send an email. If you’re going to start small and use your email as the delivery tool, you need to make sure you collect the person’s cell phone carrier and follow the carrier’s template. For example, some common carriers and their rules are listed below:

AT&T or Cingular – number@txt.att.net
Verizon Wireless – number@vtext.com
Nextel – number@messaging.nextel.com
T-Mobile – number@tmomail.net
Tracfone: number@cingularme.com
Alltel – number@message.alltel.com
Sprint – number@messaging.sprintpcs.com

In the event your customer is a Sprint customer and their number is (222) 333-4444, you would send your email to 2223334444@messaging.sprintpcs.com.

Link building is one of the ways to optimize your website for search engines. However, different types of links carry different value in the search engines. Overall, Google and other search engines want quality content. The theory is that quality content will lead to more quality links which will lead to a higher rank with the search engines. In other words, a link to your website is a vote of confidence for the content it provides. Types of Links That Don’t Work for SEO Paid links (i.e. advertisements) are not quality links. Many search engines dismiss this type of link since it was put in place by you. Reciprocal links, where you exchange links with other sites, also don’t hold a lot of weight with the search engines since the links may or may not have anything to do with the content on your site. Circular links are essentially non-direct reciprocal links. One site links to another, and that site links to the next, and so on until the last site links to the first. There is no direct reciprocal link, however the webmasters at Google have the technology to locate and break these links when found. How to Get High Quality Links for SEO Directory listings can offer good links if it is a niche directory. For example, if your webpage is on flower design, a link in a directory of florists will mean more than a general business directory. Think in terms of your keywords. Find directories that cater to those keyword niches. The search engines will recognize the link and associate it with your keyword rich content. Partnership or affiliate links can boost your SEO ranking when they link directly to your site without requiring a reciprocal link. Online communities and discussion forums can all provide quality links to your site. When posting to a forum don’t go in with a heavy sales pitch. Engage with the community first. After some time, if you have a solution to a problem that is being discussed on the site, casually direct them to where they can find the answer (i.e. your site). Keyword links are better than links provided in a list. Again, this all relates back to content. When blogging, make your links to a keyword in the post or article rather than providing it in a listing on the side. Find Out Who’s Linking to You Google provides a handy tool for you to see which sites they recognize as linking to you. Google doesn’t capture all links. Links from higher ranking pages will make their list easier. To find out which links Google recognizes type “link:webaddress” in a Google search box. For example, if your website is www.widgets.com, type in link:www.widgets.com. If a number of known links aren’t appearing on the list, it’s telling you that you need to find some better quality links if your goal is to make it to the top of the search engines. Cathy Yerges Partnering in Your Marketing Success

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is all about boosting your website to the top of the search engines when a person searches on a particular keyword. SEO can be intimidating, but it really can be boiled down to two processes: 1) on-page optimization and 2) link building. Here we’ll cover some of the basics of on-page optimization. On-page optimization is all about getting the right words on the right pages. Your first step is to build a list of the keywords and phrases that reflect your product or service. You can use keyword software tools such as WordTracker or Nichebot to perform your research. Realize that the more generic your keyword, the more web pages you will be competing with for position on the search engines. Try to choose more specific keywords. You’ll get less traffic, but it’ll be of higher quality. Once you have the keywords that you want to use, you need to place them appropriately on your web pages. Ideally, each page should only use 1-3 keywords or phrases. If you find you want to put more than three keywords on a page, you probably need to break the content down and place it on separate pages. Where you place the keywords on the page is just as important as the keywords themselves. There are four areas of the page that should include your keyword: 1) The page title – this is your first level heading 2) The page headings – all headers should be in tags 3) The page text – this is your main content 4) The image alternate text – be descriptive in the image alternate text Search engines have trouble crawling tables, JavaScrip, Flash, and images. Make sure these features aren’t limiting the search engines from seeing your entire page. Use alternate attributes if the main content and keywords on your page can’t be formatted in regular HTML. When you’ve finished the page, read it over from top to bottom. If it reads like it’s been optimized, you need to remove some of the keywords. Don’t write for the search engines, write for your readers. Overuse of keywords can get you blacklisted on the search engines. After all this, you’ll want to make sure that the search engines are actually seeing your website. On Google, you can do this by typing “cache:webaddress” in the search box. (For example, if your website is www.widgets.com, search on cache:widgets.com.) This will tell you when Google last viewed your site. You can also find which web pages are indexed with Google by typing in “site:webaddress” in the search box. (Again, this would be site:widgets.com in our example.) The result will display a list of all the pages of your website that Google sees. If you have a new site, or your site hasn’t been picked up by a search engine, you can submit your site to each search engine directly. Here are the links for submitting a site to a few of the more popular search engines: Google – http://www.google.com/addurl/ Yahoo – http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/ MSN Live – http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx Alexa – http://www.alexa.com/site/help/webmasters#crawl_site Cathy Yerges Partnering in Your Marketing Success

1. Look on your own web site. Choose words that are used on your site to describe your product or service. 2. Think like a customer. Find words that customers might use when trying to find you. Be sure to include words from all buying stages. For example, someone beginning to research navigational units might search on “GPS”. As they learn more, their search will include specific brand names like “Garmin GPS”. Once they narrow in on what they want to buy, their search will become even more specific to include a make or model reference such as “Garmin Forerunner 101 GPS”. 3. Use a keyword suggestion tool. When your creative juices run low, utilize a keyword suggestion tool. Google and Yahoo offer these tools as part of their pay-per-click programs. You can also look to keyword programs like WordTracker, Nichebot, or Good Keywords for suggestions. 

Cathy Yerges

Partnering in Your Marketing Success

The successful online marketer uses a variety of traditional and Web2.0 techniques to drive leads into their online marketing funnel. The funnel illustrates the process of moving a website visitor to a buying client and then on to an evangelist for your products and services. The funnel is widest at the top and must be filled with a variety of leads in order to have qualified prospects filter down through the buying stages of the funnel. Blending traditional marketing methods with some of the newer avenues can prove extremely beneficial to filling your funnel.

Traditional Online Marketing Methods:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is the process of organizing the content on your website to increase its potential relevance to specific keywords on search engines. It also involves building external links to your site and making sure they are titled correctly. The process is best done from the initial point of building the site and it may be beneficial to work with an SEO expert who is up-to-date on the current methods the search engines use for targeting keywords and assigning rankings.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC): PPC is an internet marketing method which allows advertisers to bid on keyword searches and pay only when a user actually clicks on their ad. Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter are the largest networks which offer PPC advertising.

Link Building: Link building involves seeking out strategic partners to add links from their web sites to your web site. Strategic partners can include: trade associations, customers, suppliers, professional organizations, and others in complementary businesses. Quality links are just as important as the quantity of links. It is often easier to get a link to your site by offering a reciprocal link in return.

Web 2.0 Marketing Methods:

Social Networks: Social networks are a means of building online communities of people who share the same interests. They offer an incredible way to communicate and share information. The most popular social networking sites in the U.S. include MySpace and Facebook.

Viral Video: A viral video is a video clip that gains widespread popularity by people sharing the clip through email, instant messaging, blogs, and websites. They are often humorous in nature which makes people want to share them with friends. YouTube is commonly associated with viral videos and offers a way to host your video clips for others to see.

Pull Marketing: Pull marketing involves creating quality content, products or services that consumers want to learn more about. Rather than pushing your product on the consumer, you offer them something of value that they want to get more of. You’re pulling them to your website where you can then sell to them. Article marketing, forum posting, and blog contributions are all ways to pull people to your website.

Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking sites like Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, and Stumbleupon offer a method for internet users to store, organize, search, and manage their favorite web pages. Being the source of quality content that people bookmark to these sites can build a viral flow of traffic to your site.

RSS Syndication: Providing quality content on a regular basis is key to building a following of internet users. Utilizing an RSS feed allows you to publish your updated blog entries, video and audio clips, and articles in a standardized format. RSS feeds allow publishers to syndicate content quickly and automatically. Readers who want timely updates can subscribe to your feed and have their feeds from multiple sites centralized in one place.

If you’re new to internet marketing, implementing just one of these strategies can bring exponential growth to your website traffic. Those who’ve already tried one or two of the traditional approaches should work to put a Web 2.0 method into place to renew the flow of traffic to their site.

Cathy Yerges Partnering in Your Marketing Success

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Media Relations Department

Phone: (786) 214-6046, ext 1003

admin@contemporaryva.com

Contemporary VA Seeking Savvy Entrepreneurs to get Creative and Win Innovative Prizes (United States & International)

July 8, 2008 –Contemporary VA is offering a few creative contest winners a chance to discover the benefits of virtual assistance without spending a dime. Contest winners will be awarded up to $700 in virtual assistance. Heather Villa, CEO comments “This service is a huge asset, allowing businesses to maximize time and run more efficiently. And when a seasonal fluctuation occurs, virtual assistance provides the ability to handle the situation with ease.”

Entering the contest is easy and the first two entries are free. Simply visit www.stickercontest.com to request your stickers. They are available in catchy phases like “A Man’s Best Friend is His Virtual Assistant” or “The New Rich Have Virtual Assistants.” Place the stickers in the most creative place you can imagine, take a photo and submit by visiting www.stickercontest.com. Additional stickers can be purchased to increase the odds of winning. Entries will be judged on creativity and the winners will be announced soon.

For more information about Contemporary VA, visit www.ContemporaryVA.com. ###

About Contemporary VA:

Contemporary VA is a single source outsourcing solution for individuals and businesses that need qualified service professionals. Their professional services include Accountants, Accounting Clerks, Lawyers, Legal Aides, Consultants, Computer Technicians and Network Analysts. With an emphasis on quality and experience, Contemporary VA helps organizations to grow and manage their business by providing just the help they need at a price they can afford.