NETWORKING YOUR WEBSITE: Press Releases to Start the Buzz

Networking Your Website with Rita Wilhelm

Do you have a product or service that you want to promote? Would you like to get some buzz from bloggers and have your information posted on other websites and social networks?

A great way to get social buzz started is to send out an online press release. Your online press release should announce something interesting about your business. If you use a service such as PRWeb, your press release will be distributed all over the internet.

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Because bloggers and webmasters are hungry for content, they search the web for good information. One of the ways they do this is by setting up Google Alerts and RSS feeds for certain keywords. If you have a good keyword match, they will see your press release and possibly start a discussion about you on their blog. Or, some webmasters may just take an RSS feed from reputable sources such as Yahoo News and automatically post your press release onto their websites.

You will want to make sure your press release is well optimized before you send it out. I highly recommend that you take PRWeb’s free webinar. You can find available dates and times here.

Once your press release has been circulated on the internet, you can start networking on those sites and be part of the conversation.

EDITOR'S NOTE: One other great way to generate buzz for yourself through PR is by using The National Networker's PR Service, part of TNNW's premium suite of services to help you leverage our extensive network for your benefit. For more information on how to generate buzz for your business NOW click here.

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Rita Wilhelm is founder and president of SnapMonkey Inc, which is a company that provides both online marketing consulting to businesses, as well as easy-to-use web-based technologies to help businesses effectively promote themselves on the web.

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NETWORKING YOUR WEBSITE: Press Releases to Start the Buzz

NETWORKING YOUR WEBSITE: Article Marketing

Networking Your Website with Rita Wilhelm

Adam J. Kovitz, the publisher of The National Networker, made up a wonderful poem, called ‘twas the night before networking’. After I read the poem, I thought it would be a great idea if he sent out his poem to different article directories.

Article directories can be a great strategy to attract people to your website. Basically, an article directory is a place where you can submit your articles to for free, as well as find content for your ezine or web sites.

Here are a few samples of article directories:

http://www.ezinearticles.com

http://www.goarticles.com

http://www.webpronews.com

So what does submitting an article into an article directory do for you?

1) Bloggers, webmasters and ezine writers are constantly looking for great information that they can share with their following. They often times go to article directories, to see if there is an article that they can use for their purposes. If your article is picked up by someone, you now have a chance to be discovered by people in other communities.

2) It allows you to be a subject matter expert.

3) Some of your articles in these directories may rank pretty high in the search engines. This can really help you with your own site’s search engine ranking, since you have a high quality link going back to your site.

4) When other sites post your article, you have the opportunity to receive another incoming link from their website as well, once again increasing the incoming links to your own website, which again helps you with your search engine ranking.

I think that Adam’s poem could be published on networking sites all over the internet. Business coaches and chambers might even post the article in their ezine, which would expand Adam’s reach even further. What articles do you have? Take a few minutes, and submit them to the article directories. You’ll be glad you did.
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Rita Wilhelm is founder and president of SnapMonkey Inc, which is a company that provides both online marketing consulting to businesses, as well as easy-to-use web-based technologies to help businesses effectively promote themselves on the web.

Posted to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER. To subscribe for your free newsletter, go to www.TheNationalNetworker.com. For the complete National Networker Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free RSS feed, go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com.

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NETWORKING YOUR WEBSITE: Article Marketing

How to Use StumbleUpon for Website Networking

Networking Your Website with Rita Wilhelm

StumbleUpon, a centralized location for sharing web sites, can be found on the Internet at http://www.stumbleupon.com. The site has over five million users currently and is growing daily. If used regularly, you can increase traffic and exposure to your web presence
exponentially and all free of charge. An added advantage to this site is that users can rate the quality of the site so when you are searching, you “stumble upon” only quality, relevant websites within your defined category preferences.

In order to use the StumbleUpon services you will need to sign up for a free account and install the custom toolbar. This is a very quick and easy process that requires no special computer or programming skills. You can customize the types of sites you would personally like to stumble upon by defining your category preferences. At this point when you are surfing to recommended sites you can rate the sites thumbs up or down based on the design, content and relevance. This is a great bit of internal quality control to ensure only worthwhile sites get added into your rotation.

You can also add your websites to the list of StumbleUpon sites in order to increase traffic and exposure. Your search engine optimization will increase due to added exposure and direct linking when people enjoy what you have to say. It is important also to keep track of who is viewing your site and visit them. You want people who have linked to your site to get more traffic so it helps you as well. So, make sure you visit and rate them. As StumbleUpon is a community site, it is important to stay active within it. Network with other users, thank them for visiting your site and rate their own sites. This will give you many advantageous over those who only occasionally use the service and do not participate in the community.

If you are a regular, active user your ranking will go up and more weight is given to your recommendations. If you have a lot of people who enjoy your posts and rankings you will be added to their network of friends which will also increase the weight given to your recommendations. This can be highly beneficial when promoting sites. In addition, if you submit and rate sites and are the first to do so, your picture will be the one that is featured on the site even when additional comments are posted after you. There is a tendency then to see what else you may have rated so all your important sites will be stumbled upon more frequently. So, when using StumbleUpon, be active and rate sites accordingly to increase exposure to the sites in which you want to add traffic.

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How to Use StumbleUpon for Website Networking

Using BlogRush

Networking Your Website with Rita Wilhelm

Would you like an easy way to drive more traffic to your blog? Consider joining a “Cooperative Syndication Network” such as BlogRush, which is a free service created by internet marketing guru John Reese.

BlogRush uses a widget that each member places on their blog. The widget lists 5 clickable headlines of 5 other member bloggers who have similar audiences.

The system is completely automated. Whenever you have a page load on your blog, you earn a “syndication credit”. This syndication credit will place your recent blog headline within the widget, on someone else’s blog. So if you have 500 page loads on your blog, you will enjoy having the headline of your recent post show up within the widget of other blogs 500 times. You can also earn referral credits, giving you even more exposure.

A concern for some people is that the link to other bloggers will make people leave your site. That is not the case. The clickable headline opens up a new window, so that your visitor does not leave your site when they click the headline.

BlogRush will work on almost any blog, as long as the blogging software allows JavaScript as well as an active RSS feed. It does not work on the hosted version of Wordpress at Wordpress.com.

BlogRush takes just 5 minutes to set up. You simply go to BlogRush.com, register for free, enter some information about your blog, and then copy and paste a snippet of code onto your own blog.

With BlogRush, your blog will receive exposure on other sites. It’s a great way to get discovered by new people within your target audience.

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Using BlogRush

Marketing Your Business on Second Life

Networking Your Website

By Rita Wilhelm
Contributing Writer

Imagine having two lives, one in the real world, and one in a virtual world. What if the marketing efforts that you do in the virtual world, could impact your results in the real world?

Second Life is an online virtual world created by Linden Labs. It’s a place where you can literally live a different life. Buying a house, meeting your neighbors, creating and trading items and services with one another, are just some of the things you can do in this online world. Second Life has over 13 million registered users.

I recently met Torley Wong on Twitter. We started chatting, and I learned about his expertise on Second Life. He agreed to do an interview with me, which I think you will find interesting. Here it is:

Rita: Tell me a little bit about your business.
Torley: I'm the Resident Enlightenment Manager at Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. We're a virtual world where people do just about anything, and that "anything" keeps growing to encompass possibilities unheard of before. You can come in and fall in love (I did), start a business (I've been involved in that too), and go on adventures through varied and vast landscapes that keep growing (I've done lots of that). You might think of them as "3D webpages" but that analogy, like calling a car a "horseless carriage", is falling apart as humans become acclimated to and excited by the wonders.

One of Second Life's key strengths over the material world is resource costs: you don't have to cut down a big forest to build a virtual building. Things can be achieved rapidly, including design prototypes and experimental marketing campaigns.

My job is to shine a light on skills that Residents (customers) of Second Life should know, including matters about commerce, like how to buy/sell stuff and package virtual goods. I'm also known for a series of almost 200 video tutorials covering that awesomeness.

Rita: Can Second Life help a small business gain more exposure? If so, how?

Torley: Yes! I highly recommend visiting http://secondlifegrid.net for more details; but in short, having a virtual world presence in SL can be relatively low-cost, and since it's 3D, literally adds a dimension to your products. Stuff like cars, clothes, and unique products which exist *only* in Second Life all have the potential to sell like hotcakes if you have an effective presence.

Think about how having a website and email address is essential to many businesses, especially if you do knowledge-based work. In the future, Second Life will become more prominent this way, with a key advantage being the social aspects: you and friends can walk around a model of a car, take it for a simulated test drive, and then become interested enough to find it in "real life". So even at the very least, it can build memorable, remarkable, brand awareness of *you* — and like I said, there are many amazing things that are ONLY sold in Second Life (as virtual products/services).

Rita: What are some strategies a small business might take to benefit from their time on Second Life to increase sales?

Torley: Without question, do your research. FIND HOLES NO ONE ELSE HAS FILLED. Look for problems going unsolved, and advertise that you have a fix. It sounds obvious but some companies who flopped in SL didn't understand the medium, or didn't bother to get to know the needs of existing Residents in our communities. Really "getting it" is key to succeeding here. Your approaches may vary depending on your business, but if you have real products that might not translate too well into SL (like food, since we can't taste stuff in a virtual world... yet, although there's certainly no shortage of "pixel food" in this world), consider offering SL exclusives that are useful + fun — what I call "usefun". Such as, a robot avatar (avatars being what "your character" looks like in SL)...

OH! Actually, Paramount had a great amount of success by distributing Iron Man avatars AND allowing them to be modified. They took a risk and it paid off, because Residents thought they were both generous for giving away this freebie to build word of mouth for the Iron Man movie, and it led to viral spread through pictures like this: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ironmansl/pool/

We've had all sorts of "only-in-SL" success stories that aren't possible anywhere else, like a guy who designed animated waves which were distributed across beaches all over SL. Or virtual fashion trends mimicking, then building on "first life" ones like "neko" (catgirls) which are insanely popular in pockets of Japan and growing in North America. Look to international markets, it's easy to bridge them in SL! Physically impossible stuff is often a big hit, too.

In a sentence: go back to your childhood and indulge in what mattered most to you. Others can relate. Avatars don't "need" many things, but the cravings to *want* cool stuff will never cease.

Rita: What are your top 3 tips for someone just getting started on Second Life?

Torley: #1 - Be curious, and indulge. Heard of something eclectic in SL that you've never seen before? Seek it out and learn all about it. Technically, this may be called "market research", but it's more rewarding. Second Life has birthed its own unique cultures which may have first-life analogues (like steampunk and hoboes) and embracing those, or at least getting to understand them and their desires better, is key to succeeding business-wise.

#2 - Make friends fast. After being curious, seek out the people who've made stuff you like (we call them "content creators"). You can learn from and teach them, and build alliances. Some of the most powerful businesses in SL are formed from small groups of friends. Plus, when there's adversity and challenges, having a friend helps to keep you level and cheer up your days.

#3 - Watch my video tutorials! I've taught thousands of old and new Residents skills at http://secondlife.com/video , and I'm also linked to our Knowledge Base — which is like "Second Life's manual". If you hate reading, you'll love my videos because I show you simply what to do, step-by-step. You'll feel more confident and find the inworld experience to be, well, an awesomer one!

Rita: Thanks Torley for the great interview!

I have to say that the interview got me excited about trying out Second Life. I like the fact that you can do experimental marketing campaigns. I think I may give it a try. How about you?

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Marketing Your Business on Second Life

Networking Your Website Using Link Bait

By Rita Wilhelm, TNNW Contributing Writer

Building incoming relevant links to your website is what will boost your search engine rankings the most. This is an ongoing process, and this is probably the most time-consuming task related to online marketing.

An incoming link from another site, basically tells the search engines that your site may have good information on it. It’s a vote for you. The more links (or votes) you get from other quality sites, the higher you will rank in the search engines.

But what is going to make quality sites want to link to you?

First of all, it is important to look at your content (what you talk about on your website or blog). Is your website basically a sales pitch? If so, then it’s not very likely someone is going to link to you, unless they are an affiliate and get a commission for referring new clients to you.

To get people to link to you really requires that you have something noteworthy on your website or blog.

You may have heard the term ‘link bait’ before. Link bait is basically content that you put out, that attracts other people, and makes them want to link to you through their blog or other sites.

Do you have an insightful report that people might want to link to? Do you have something that is interesting, educational or funny on your site? Maybe you have a special tool that people can use, or resources that you have gathered.

These links are not only good from a search engine standpoint, but also from a referral standpoint. If a well known blogger talks about something on your site and links to you, you may very well benefit from a burst of new traffic.

Make sure you have an opportunity in place on your link bait page, to convert your visitors to new prospects or clients.

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Networking Your Website Using Link Bait

Networking Your Website - Craigslist

By Rita Wilhelm, Contributing Writer

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In my column with The National Networker, I often like to write about how people are using different online social networks to network their websites to grow their business.

For this column, I decided to interview Lori Osterberg of Vision Business Concepts, to learn more about how she uses Craigslist to grow her business.

Craigslist has over 30 million viewers per month. People who use Craigslist can post and view classifieds, and communicate in forums.

It’s important to note that when promoting your business on Craigslist, you are only allowed to post in the ‘Small Biz Ads’ section under ‘Services’, so that you are not spamming the community.

Click for my interview with Lori...

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Networking Your Website - Craigslist

Networking Your Website - Commenting on Blogs

By Rita Wilhelm, Contributing Writer Rita's Bio Email article RSS feed

Did you know that you can drive an unbelievable amount of traffic to your website, just by placing comments on other people’s blogs?

A web surfer who is interested in what a blog has to say, will usually read the comments. If there is something in your comment that sparks the curiosity of the surfer, they will click your name, and find themselves on your website or blog.

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Networking Your Website - Commenting on Blogs