Every Thursday at 3:20pm I get a Google Alert that at 330pm EST, I will be participating in an online Tweetup called Travelers Night In (#TNI Twitter hashtag). I first found out about the Tweetup when I noticed #TNI appearing in the Alltravelsites Twitter stream. I then asked one of the people what the Hashtag #TNI stands for, and I was sent to the Travelers Night In page and told to follow it on Tweetgrid.com, which is a cool site that allows you to follow numerous Twitter streams and post to your own stream to connect to the Twitter conversation.
TNI is from 330pm to 5pm and it consists of 10 questions about some area of travel, this upcoming week for example is on the topic of “Festivals”.
Healthy Travel from ChooseCherries
Several weeks ago, when I participated in the Healthy Travel TNI, which was sponsored by Choosecherries, I actually won a Choosecherries travel pack. One lucky TNI participant won the grand prize which included a cherry iPod. Good thing I didn’t win that, or it would have made three iPods I have won and don’t use. But anyway, I would like to thank ChooseCherries for the cherry travel pack..I loved eating the dried cherries on my oatmeal in the morning..yum..
ChooseCherries.com does not sell or represent any one cherry company, so I guess you could call them a Cherry Coalition. Their site has lots of great info about cherries, including many cherry recipes and cherry health and nutrition information. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
If you did not know, I am a big fan of the cherry as a fruit. I also love lots of different cherry candy..see the Cherry Mash Needs SEO blog post..Thinking about cherries reminds me of one of my favorite dishes at a local restaurant, the Landis Store Hotel, Duck with Cherry Sauce…oh, I need to stop thinking about food.
Who Should participate in #TNI?
Back to TNI, now who should participate in TNI? If you have a travel interest that is personal or professional, you may want to consider following and participating in TNI. Who already participates in TNI?
Travel bloggers
Travel agents
Travel enthusiasts
Travel photographers
So if you find yourself being o of these four types of travelers, or if you find yourself being a person that would like to network with these types of travelers, why not tune in on Thursday and give TNI a try?
If you are interested in Sponsoring TNI like ChooseCherries.com did, you can visit ZipSetgo below for more info.
Examine TNI
TNI and other similar Twitter Chats have the potential to be awesome marketing events. Thinking about your own little niche, be it automotive, financial, home improvement or what have you. Do you think you could use a Tweetup like this to drive business to your site or your physical location?
TNI Resources
ZipSetGo TNI Post -These wonderful ladies are responsible for starting and maintaining TNI. I am sure if you have questions about starting a Tweetup or questions about sponsoring TNI, this is the place to go.
Sometime ago, when I was considering getting a (sorry for cursing) a job, I had an interview at Yellowbook.com for an account specialist position. The position was primarily for a PPC (Pay per Click) account manager, which I have a bit of experience with PPC, having first experienced the activities involved with a PPC campaign about 7 years ago and I believe the entire campaign was run on what was known as Overture, which became part of the Yahoo empire. The campaign was Bicycle Touring with Baldydog, a bicycle touring equipment company(the original Baldydog), that did not do well at all, and actually wasted a ton of money.
Anyway, back to the authority known as Yellow Book.
Yellow book advertising is a method of advertising that many businesses may decide is an appropriate method of spending their valuable advertising dollars.
From the humble beginnings in Long Island, Yellow Book has grown to be a huge advertising medium. I bet most people have let their fingers do the walking on more than one occasion. Currently though, the old Yellow Pages has seen a serious decline, and is struggling to stay a float. However, it is still a prefered advertsining medium to many of the mom and pops to name a few. I am not going to tell you that it is dieing, and the new Yellow Pages is the smartphone..I am sure you new that.
Possible Ways to Capitalize on Yellow Book
What I am going to give you are four ideas for taking advantage of the declining authority of Yellow Book.
Become a Yellow Book certified SEO Contractor?
Make an SEO training program, and get Yellowbook to market it to their huge customer base.
Link Build and Rank for Yellow Book Keywords such as:
yellow book
Yellow Book Advertising
Yellow Book Advertiser
Yellow Book Advertising rates
Yellowpages
Yellowpages.com
Yellowpages.cm
yellowpages.cmo
yellowpages
yellowpage
the Yellow Pages
yellowpages map
YP.com map
yellow pages maps
etc…
Lastly, go after Yellowpages.com advertising customers who were serviced badly by the old world advertising authority. (there are a lot of them). I have more than a few clients that previously were using Yellowpages.com or Superpages.com, which did provide a website and were being charged on a PPC basis. Several of my clients that previously were with Yp.com, said they had signed an iron clad contract which meant being charged hundreds of dollars a month for clicks that YP said they had recieved..but the calls did not come in at all and the ROI(return on investment) was just not there. On the positive, I have noticed that the sites that my clients were given, were optimized well for local search, but usually the on-page optimization is where the SEO ends with YP sites.
Why Yellowpages Advertising is so Bad
First, I did say that a few of my clients did sign up for and get an actual website. However, the sites were very basic, and were optimized for only their local geographic regions. So showing up in the SERPs for other geographic regions without any further SEO is out of the question.
Secondly, my clients were being charged for clicks, which meant when ever a person searched for say “Exton Home Cleaner“, and the resulting search brought up a Superpages listing, when the searcher clicked on the link, and visited the Superpages page and then hopefully clicked on my clients link, he was charged for a click…whether he got any business or not.
Thirdly, Yellowpages or any of their affiliated sites do not make money if the clients site ranks, only if the YP pages does. So they have no incentive to properly SEO the clients sites.
What Can YellowPages do to Turn It Around
First, they can quit ripping people off for unsubstantiated PPC advertising, by changing their monetization strategies. They already have the ability to build websites, so why not focus on creating a advertising experience that does not take advantage of the small business owner who is powerless to do anything after they have signed a seemingly iron clad contract after being sweet talked by a Yellowpages Advertising sales person who promises the world but delivers little.
Are You a Prior YellowPages Advertiser?
If you are a small business owner who is tired of paying for Yellowpages advertising, and would like to see a higher ROI on their advertising dollars, please leave a comment or stop by Baldydog.com and feel free to contact us for a quote that will enable you to see a significantly higher ROI than Yellowpages advertising.
Do you have a Yellow Book, Yellowpages, Superpages or other type of experience you can share with us?
Wow, it has been almost two months since I posted. Why? I am not exactly sure. It must be summer. What have I been working on?
Well lots of stuff. But what have I been thinking about?
Home Improvement SEO
What I have been thinking about are Niches of SEO. We have multiple websites that focus on various niches, such as real estate, travel, food, and home improvement. Since I have these niche sites, I have decided to focus on these areas from an SEO perspective. So for example our home improvement site, which does have some home improvement articles and home improvement info, I will now focus on doing blog posts that put some SEO type info that include info on how other home improvement webmasters can optimize their sites to improve their results. So maybe some home improvement company owners will find some useful info, and realize how time consuming SEO is, and request a proposal for our Home Improvement SEO services. I have already started out contacting these types of sites via Twitter and Facebook.
Restaurant SEO
For our restaurant review site, I would like to be seen as an authority in the field of resaurant SEO, so I have started adding articles for restaurant owners that will help with their online marketing. Restaurants, much like Home Improvement contractors, should be more concerned with their local search results. Restaurants don’t necessarily need to rank in the natural listings, but do need to show up in the local listings. We can help them with that for sure.
Travel SEO
For our travel site, we will be positioning ourselves as an authority in the travel seo field. We are already getting some traffic for the term Travel SEO. The blog currently has some articles which are aimed at travel agents who would like to increase their marketing. But I believe I can do more than help travel agents. This SEO niche, would seem to be the one that has the most potential. Travel SEO clients could include hotels, airlines, restaurants at popular vacation destinations, destination travel bureaus, hospitality industry web advertising agencies that do not have in-house SEO staff, resorts, and more.
First, we have already positioned ourselves as a reputable SEO firm. Secondly, we have the sites, which we can use to focus on these other SEO niches. Third we need to spread the word and get more clients in the focus niches.
My efforts as the Social Media Director will be to make contacts with potential clients via Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, by using tactics such as those discussed by our former intern in Using LinkedIN, Twitter and Facebook to to find a Job.
I will be using the rule of 8 touches and tracking my efforts by noting dates and times of contact.
Next, I am in the process of creating landing pages on Baldydog.com for the three SEO Niches, and I will then build some links to the said landing pages, which should help them in the SERPs for these SEO terms which should be far less competitive than SEO terms such as SEO, SEO company, SEO contractor, SEO firm, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimization Company and the like.
So, what is your seo niche, and how can I help you?
This is a blog post for Joe Fava of Clothes2Home.com, which is a garment care company in Boyertown, Pa. I would classify Clothes2home as a dry cleaning service, but the truth is they do much more than just dry cleaning.
The other day I was in picking up some dry cleaning and Joe was telling me that he would like to increase the activity on his Facebook page.
So I did a little brainstorming and this is the video and blog post that resulted.
Clothes2Home Social Media Ideas
Give aways for doing something like signing up for the Clothes2Home newsletter, leaving comments on posts such as “Your Favorite Fava Page”.
Potential Contest Prizes
5 suit drive cleanings(I like the number five, as in a weeks worth of suits dry cleaned)
a free tux rental
free Fathers Day gift
A comforter dry cleaning
other
an iPod
To encourage those who get your email updates to follow you on various networks, give them an entry for adding you on each network. Also give an entry for each valid comment. Give additional entries if someone refers more friends.
Coupons- have weekly specials, and vary them to include listing different specials on each of the Social media outposts. Be sure to let your fans on Facebook and/or Twitter know about the special that is available on the other outpost.
Obtain foot traffic patrons email addresses and ask them if you can send them email or newsletter updates of specials and notifications when items are ready to be picked up.
Include links to your social media sites in your email correspondence.
Overall, I think Clothes2Home is doing a great job with their Social Media Optimization(SMO). The main thing is you are doing it, and you are not going to quit.
General SEO Suggestions for Clothes2Home
Add content to your site and do keyword research to find out what possible keywords to optimize.Use the free Google Adsense Keyword tool.
Create landing pages for your main keywords and include text links to them in your bottom navigation.
Bottom Navigation should be text based not graphic. Include links to landing pages, site map, disclaimer, contact page, directions, coupons..etc..
Optimize title tags with keywords..Clothes2Home does not need to be in every title tag or at the beginning of each title tag. Example Home page title tag might be
Make sure you use the same alt and title tag for pictures.
My Motorola Backflip has only a few more hours left in my life…I just got my iPhone 3GS, so I will be taking the Backflip back to the AT&T store in Boyertown as soon as I get this Motorola Backflip review post done.
And none too soon..
Having used the Backflip for about 3 weeks, I can honestly say there have been very few moments that have gone by when I have not cursed the poorly designed smart phone. Below is my video review of the Backflip, and below it you will find a list of my gripes..there might even be a list of the few things I like about the Backflip..a short list indeed.
Motorola Backflip Features I Like
The 5 mega pixel camera- nice for a cell phone camera.
A Video camera – my missing iphone 3G didn’t take videos.
The wide qwerty flip out keyboard for easier texting.
Updates your Social Media profiles instantly with Motoblur.
A touch pad on the back of the screen in addition to the touch screen comes in handy for correcting spelling mistakes in email and texts.
Motorola Backflip Features I Hate
Comes with Yahoo as the defualt search engine..I was unable to change it to Google, but did manage to make Google my homepage only the before.
The setting screen lets you adjust nothing. You would think this would be were I could change the default search engine to Google, but it doesn’t let you do it. I even had the people at the AT&T store trying to figure it out. My son came across a forum post that said it was possible, but it gave no directions on how to do so.
Often times when I get a call, it will not let me answer the phone. The “slide to answer” button did not work all the time.
During calls, the screen fades to black and the will come back on but will then fade after a few seconds, and will do this on off cycle continually…must be an energy saving feature.
Speaking of energy, I was continually having to charge the battery, and often I was left with a dead phone when there was not a charge to be found.
The car charger was not a a rapid charger..it seemed to take forever to charge via the car charger.
Often times my fingers would touch something and screens would appear or disappear without the least bit of reason why.
On the call screen the mute button is next to the call button, and on more than one call I accidentally muted the call.
The phone seems to have really poor reception, as I had trouble getting any calls in my basement office. It had not been a problem with my iPhone.
The notification that I have voicemail is either so small that I can not see it or non-existent..not quite sure, but I found my self calling my voice mail to learn I had missed multiple important calls.
Since last week the Foursquare app has refused to update the location..this might be a problem with the app..but any way according to the phone I am still in Coatsville, PA.
Every time the phone shuts down, you need to press the button to the left to see either the last screen you were on or the home screen.
The volume control is placed so that when you are using the qwerty keyboard, the volume keys accidentally get hit and often interfere with your texting.
The video camera did not download to my computer.. I was unsure which way to take the vids..the first one I uploaded to Youtube was upsidedown. It also lets you share via email, but it is in a file extension that I have yet to been able to use..I guess I need some software to be able to use it. That would have been nice to have in the box.
The touch screen is way to sensitive.
Dropped calls way too much.
It also does a lot of butt dialling even though I don’t put my phone in my back pocket, and do make a habit of hitting the hybernate button. My landscaper, must think I am a pain in the butt for sure.
As you can tell from the amount of negatives, my opinion of the Motorola Backflip is less than favorable. Perhaps I might be too spoiled after using an iPhone 3G for about 6 months. If I were a young teenager I would probably love this phone. But for me, I think I will be glad to be once again be using an iPhone.
You can check out this TechCrunch article which gives several methods for embedding links. If you decide to use Blackbird Pie, be sure not to use the https version of your tweet links. Also, you must click on the time link below the Tweet which says something like “about 1hr ago” and copy and paste that link into the Blackbird tool to get an embedded tweet like the one on this post.
Other Twitter Stuff
You do know that many of the search engines are using Twitter results for part of their real time search results right? Well tweets do often show up in the SERPs.
Something that makes me go hmm
As you may or may not know, as part of the Baldydog.com company, we not only do SEO, but I as the Social Media Director, do manage several other blogs.
In addition to all the blogs, as part of the Baldydog network, we have multiple sites to include directories such as Pixelheadonline, Online Legal Directory, Home Improvement Directory, and of course Alltravelsites.com to name just a few. If you want a complete list of our directories, leave a comment, and I will send you an email with the complete list of our directories.
Anyway, while reviewing and publishing travel site submissions on the travel directory, as part of the submission process, I usually send out several tweets about the newly added travel resource. I usually say something like the tweet below.
I also send out a tweet with the individual page for the listing and may include a direct link to the url of the listing if it is a short url.
Link Building Tip
What I have noticed is that links that I tweet, such as individual listing pages, will then be cached in Google. If I don’t Tweet them, they won’t get cached, and as you know, an un-cached page is as good as invisible to Google because it doesn’t know about the web page.
Does this mean you should go and send thousands of spam links to Twitter so they get cached? I wouldn’t recommend it. I think it is ok occasionally. What I try to do when I do these types of “resource addition” tweets, is to sandwich them between tweets that seek to share, communicate, rt, or be genuinely helpful.
Even these types of tweets, I feel are helpful and not spammy, as I am only tweeting about travel related resources, and most of the 2000+ followers have some sort of travel interest.
So How Can You Use Twitter for Link Buiding
Twitter links as you know are nofollow type links, so they really don’t count for much Google Juice, but they do serve to notify the search engines of your resource, which may otherwise have been uncached.
If you do link building as we do, when you get accepted into a directory, send out a Tweet for the actual listing page of your resource or the category page that your listing appears if it is not too heavily populated with other similar resources.
Try to get as many cached links pointing to your site as possible. Cached with PR is better, but cached at the very least.
So have you noticed similar results using Twitter, or do you think I am erroneous?
**note – to get the box around my tweets, I put the tweets into a table. <table border=”2″><tr><td>Tweet code</table></tr></td>
won a Choosecherries travel pack. One lucky TNI participant won the grand prize which included a cherry iPod. Good thing I didn’t win that, or it would have made three iPods I have won and don’t use. But anyway, I would like to thank ChooseCherries for the cherry travel pack..I loved eating the dried cherries on my oatmeal in the morning..yum..
about 7 years ago and I believe the entire campaign was run on what was known as Overture, which became part of the Yahoo empire. The campaign was Bicycle Touring with Baldydog, a bicycle touring equipment company(the original Baldydog), that did not do well at all, and actually wasted a ton of money.
And none too soon..
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