Tag-Archive for » online marketing «

Friday, November 06th, 2009 | Author: Zeke Camusio

oldeshoeantiques-bargain-basementPay Per Click campaigns can quickly become an expensive endeavor. As more and more advertisers leave TV, Radio, Billboard advertising and move to the web, the competition for each click continues to go up as do the costs. Sometimes each click can cost upwards of $5.00. That’s very expensive traffic unless you’re selling cancer treatments or legal services.

Here are a couple of money saving tips to help drive traffic to your site at bargain basement prices.

Bid on Competitors URLs
You’d be amazed how many people type YouTube.com into a search engine instead of into the address bar. Each time someone types a competitor’s website address into Google, there’s an opportunity for you to show a very inexpensive ad to that consumer. You can make that ad even more compelling by advertising as an alternative to that competitor with their name in the ad copy. Sometimes these very targeted clicks will only cost you $0.05/per click.

Bid on Competitor’s Names
It’s the same idea as the URL, but you’re using the competitor’s name instead. Traffic from clicks like this can be very inexpensive and very targeted if you pick the right competitors.

Bid on Misspelled Words
This is different than Typosquatting. You’re just showing inexpensive ads to people who accidently fat-fingered their keyboard or mistyped the name. An ad like this could cost a fraction of the correctly spelled word. Use this tool http://tools.seobook.com/spelling/keywords-typos.cgi to help find typo’s of important keywords.

Test Your Site with Cheap PPC
Inexpensive tactics like this to drive traffic to your site is a great way to fine tune your product price points, try out new guarantees, experiment with special offers, etc before you even have a product to sell. The goal is to drive a bunch of traffic and see what offers are the most useful. With traffic like this at less than $0.10 per click, you can learn a lot about what works on your site and what needs to be changed. PPC can be expensive in the long run, but you can use tricks like these to experiment for a few dollars.

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Wednesday, November 04th, 2009 | Author: Zeke Camusio

Many web sites are created by graphic designers. They often have fantastic imagery, sexy menus, and lots of graphic flair. However, few sites achieve the goal of converting traffic into buyers and making money online.

Recently, we completed a redesign of JohnHersey.com. John is a award winning public speaker and motivational coach, but his website was having trouble conveying his story. We redesigned the site from a marketing perspective and used a few simple ideas to help him convert traffic into customers. I think this is also a great example of how you can use a small site and simple graphic principles to achieve the specific goal of moving prospects towards a next step.

johnhersey-site

As you can see, John’s new site is pretty simple. It has a small menu of five choices on the top. Remember, choice is a burden online. The fewer choices you customers have to make, the more likely they are to make the right choice. John’s business is to sell his services as a consultant and a public speaker. The most valuable selling point is John’s winning personality. Therefore, the most prominent portion of the website is a large video of John right at eye level with an offer to receive additional videos. The entire site is designed around the goal of getting people to A) watch the brief video and B) trade their email address for additional (free) videos of John demonstrating his skills. These videos are sent to prospects in a drip campaign allowing for additional marketing over time.

You don’t need a really complicated website to achieve those two goals. In fact, we could further simplify the site to be just a video and a special offer. An ultra simple version like that could serve as a landing page for a pay per click campaign, for example. But we want to accomplish a few other tasks with John’s site without overwhelming the audience and detracting from the main goal of the site.

johnhersey-icons

There are a four other goals we want to tackle on the home page. All four are equally important, but we don’t want any of them to detract from the main goal of downloading free videos. We used icons to help people quickly identify what each item represents and easily scanned language to help prospects make a quick decision about clicking through to the page.

1.    John writes a great blog about leadership, courage, sales and other exciting topics. We want to highlight John’s blog on the home page, and allow people to scan quickly and decide if they want to read more.

2.    John has a few well designed products. We want prospects to identify that A) John has products for sale and B) identify if any of John’s products are of interest.

3.    Speaking programs. We want to highlight that John’s business is about public speaking and allow prospects to scan and decide if they want to learn more about his speaking programs.

4.    John also runs a consulting business and would like prospects to understand quickly what his consulting business does and decide to click through to the page if they are interested.

We use the bottom portion of John’s site to highlight some of his major clients for credibility. Credibility is a huge factor in helping prospects decide to take the next step. If clients aren’t already persuaded by John’s videos, blog, and testimonial page, identifying some of his major clients can help tip prospects into taking the next step.

johnhersey-clients1

A home page is always a balance between goals and information. The less information you have, the easier it is for your prospects to take the next step, but too little information may prevent them moving forward. Take some time to think more about the goals of your site and how you can use some minor graphic tweaks or a simple redesign to help your prospects convert to customers.

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Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 | Author: Zeke Camusio

farmers_market_2539937014_f55ecebf38_bMany businesses aren’t global by definition. Realtors, Chiropractors, Insurance agents, Restaurants, Hair Stylists, and many other local service providers count on local traffic for their business. It used to be very hard for local businesses to compete with global search giants, Pottery Barn would beat out any local furniture store, and what restaurant could compete with Olive Garden. Luckily, the search engines have been working hard to solve the problem of directing local traffic to local businesses. Here’s how to win the local search game.

Post your information on local search engines
The local search engines like Dexknows.com often search each other’s indexes and therefore share information. Larger search engines like infoUSA.com or Localeze.com also share information through data exchange or syndication. This information gets passed onto larger search engines like Yahoo Local profile and Google Local Business Listings. So start by getting your business or service listed in as many local search engines as you can find (hint: they advertise on local TV stations and Billboards). Most of these listings will be free or a have a very minimal charge. This will cause a trickle up effect to the larger searches.

Other great location specific search engines are Yelp.com, Superpages.com, Marchex’s OpenList Network.

Find a way into the local blogs

Many bloggers focus on a neighborhood like Highlands, or very small region like Northwest Denver. These are great resources for local listings. To find these blogs try a basic search like Denver blog or Littleton Blog.

These are very well indexed by search engines for a specific location because they mention the neighborhood so many times. Businesses that are mentioned or linked in these blogs have a very high relevancy and trust factor in the local search engine rankings.

Local directories
Local directories are also well indexed by search engines and are highly relevant to cities or neighborhoods. The best kind of directories are edited by humans because they tend to have less spam than the free-for-all types. Best of the Web is a great example of a local directory, or you can look to Yahoo’s Regional Directory. Try looking for Denver directory or Colorado directory to find more.

Be ruthless about your profile

Do frequent searches in your area and see what turns up for you. Many directories will allow you to edit your profile, so make sure you have your business name, address, and phone number correct wherever you can find it.

Take some time to carefully craft the description of your service. Use comfortable language and a touch of levity to make your Restaurant or Health Clinic stand out among the other choices. Also, take time to get a professional photograph taken and include in any directories that will let you. People will notice a photo and often choose your smiling face over the no-name service just above you in the rankings.

Local search is a huge growing business. Instead of running a very expensive phone book ad, take a few hours to explore what’s out there in local search, you’ll be amazed at the results.

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Monday, October 26th, 2009 | Author: Zeke Camusio

pix_sharesupportSo Viacom is suing YouTube for a Billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion with a giant capital “B.” Basically that’s 6 times Viacom’s annual revenue and about 2/3 of what Google paid when they bought YouTube a few years back. Viacom is suing YouTube because someone discovered that the managers and employees of YouTube were turning a blind eye to the copyrighted material that was being uploaded to the site. And because this is the 21st century, the lawsuit is well documented with email correspondence between the guilty parties. (Note to self… be careful what you email).

Viacom is the media giant that owns MTV networks, Paramount Pictures, and among other things The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Think back to when you first laughed at a Daily Show clip. If you’re like millions of others, you discovered that clip on YouTube; probably because it was forwarded to you buy someone else who discovered it on YouTube. Clips of the South Park, snippets of Saturday Night Live, and favorite bits of movies were what made YouTube so popular in the beginning. Instead of saying “…do you see the Natalie Portman rap song?” you could queue it up on YouTube and share.

So Viacom’s lawsuit is partly about damages, but it’s also about profit sharing. Viacom’s content helped YouTube’s rise to online media dominance. But let’s not forget the integral role that YouTube played in bringing a mass audience to The Daily Show, or reminding a generation that Music Videos could be cool again. YouTube made Viacom a ton of money as Viacom was making YouTube famous.

Suing People is Not a Long Term Business Model
There’s a special circle of Hell reserved for companies who sue the pants off the groups that make them money. Currently, the RIAA and MPAA – Recording Industry and Motion Picture Associations of America – are filling up that circle for driving fans into Bankruptcy, shutting down Napster, and chasing The Pirate Bay across Europe. There’s a sad irony to the exchange and it feels like everyone sees it, but that doesn’t stop the lawsuits. It seems when you have money and law on your side, there’s no stopping to notice the scorched earth behind you.

Embrace Sharing
On the flip side, there are the bright shining stars that recognize how powerful the idea of sharing can be. Wilco was one of the first bands to put the entire album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot online for download and sharing. It’s still their number one selling album and the perfect combination of beautiful pop songs and fan-centric generosity made them internationally famous. Glee, the new Fox TV show about high school show choir used YouTube and social media to create an enormous amount of buzz before the show was even aired. It quickly became one of the most talked about and critically acclaimed shows of the year. Paranormal Activity, made for $10,000, used social media buzz and shared clips to generate $62 million in ticket sales.

By embracing the universal human desire to share cool stuff with each other, those who get it will continue to thrive. Those who don’t get it deserve their hellish time battling it out in court.

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Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 | Author: Zeke Camusio

attentionI first discovered podcasting four years ago and was amazed at the wealth of really high quality content for free. The creators all shared a commitment to keep the medium free. “A business model will emerge,” became the mantra for the first generation of podcasters.

David Spark wrote a fascinating article about the 9 successful business models for podcasting. While much of the podcasting world is still a labor of love, some enterprising podcasters are making a very good living from their content. Here’s a quick summary of the 9 models David identified. You can read the article here

1.    Got audience? We’ll get you sponsors – podcast networks like Mevio, Podtrac, and Wizard Media will do the legwork and find sponsors to include in your content.

2.    Get your own sponsors – If you’re willing to shop for and manage your own sponsors, you can make additional revenue and be more in control of your content.

3.    Be like public TV, beg for donations – podcasting is expensive and passionate listeners will often help out with the costs.

4.    Give some away free, charge for the rest – Some podcasts will give away every other show or one show a month and charge a nominal fee for access to the other shows.

5.    Partial show free, full show paid – the first 15 minutes are free, and you pay for the remaining amount.

6.    Build your own media network of programming and sell advertising against it – similar to building a radio network, but much less expensive. Handpick podcasts that fit an overall theme and sell targeted advertising.

7.    Build your brand to sell your services – Duct tape marketing podcast, book, blog etc is a great example of how a podcast can help drive sales of a book and consulting organization.

8.    Sell an iPhone app along with your podcast – Elsie Escobar sells a $3.99 iPhone app to go along with her free yoga podcast.

9.    Integrate sponsorship with the show’s editorial – Audible sponsorship fits right alongside of book recommendations in Slate’s Culture Gabfest.

What’s interesting is that it wasn’t just one business model that emerged but many different ones. Most are tweaks of existing models that exist in the radio, television, or keynote speaking world. Others, like the iPhone app, use technology that was invented after podcasting started.

It’s encouraging to see people who are passionate about creating content take a leap of faith and find a way to make their passion pay. Leo Laport, runner of the TWiT network of podcasts, reported that he made $1.5million in revenue. Not bad for a guy who started a few years ago in his basement with some audio equipment and a Skype connection.

Transplanting Business Models
Clayton Christensen, author of the Innovators Dilemma, once said there are only a few business models in the world. As we explore new content creation techniques like Twitter, and new technologies like netbooks and smartphones, it is useful to pay attention to reliable business models and how they can be transplanted into the new content forms.

It’s also worth paying attention to the models that no longer work as well. Network TV advertising has slumped in the past decade. Fewer people are watching prime-time network TV and the mass-media audience is frequently splintered into more available shows and distribution techniques like Hulu. Product placements, like Pepsi billboards in a movie, are also getting a bit stale. But announcer sponsorships, like the ones in old-time-radio, are making a real comeback in syndicated radio and podcasting.

Take some time to explore some of the business models above and see if there’s a way to work them into your marketing efforts. You may be surprised at the business models that emerge.

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Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 | Author: Zeke Camusio

tug-of-war-webTwo exiting new technology products launched this week and took very different approaches to marketing.

Windows 7 is the long awaited new operating system from Microsoft. Because Vista, the previous operating system was a complete mess, Microsoft really wanted to hit it out of the park with Windows 7.

Cute is the New Black
They launched a TV ad campaign with Kylie, a 4 and a half year old self-described PC girl. She finds happy words and pictures of bunnies her dad’s PC and quickly makes a slide show complete with Rocky music. The ad is sickeningly sweet and goes right for our emotional responses. We all know that cute sells, but I can’t help feeling this is a bit much.

Viral. Like Swine Flu
Microsoft also made an attempt at viral marketing with its “host a Windows 7 party” campaign. Yes, it really is as dorky as it sounds. Sign up and Microsoft will send you Windows 7 napkins, Windows 7 gift bags, Windows 7 balloons. Invite your friends over for a party to celebrate the launch of Windows 7 and have fun installing it on laptops and troubleshooting together.

“Wanna come to my Windows 7 release party?”

“No.”

The concept was certainly viral, but not in the way Microsoft had hoped. Pretty soon, it was every tech reporter and blogger’s favorite thing to cringe about. Someone dubbed over the release party video with a censor bleep and created a hysterically dirty version. Other people ordered the kits and threw parties to mock Microsoft. It created a lot of buzz, but at what cost?

Ride the Wave
Around the same time, Google launched Wave. Wave is a new web platform that lets you collaborate with people in real time on a document. The idea is it replaces the back and forth nature of email and gives you a really good way to create something in a team.

Google realized a couple things:

1.    Wave is full of bugs  and isn’t really ready for mainstream yet.

2.    Wave is very hard to describe and a bit counter intuitive to understand.

3.    Wave, like a telephone, requires other people in the network to collaborate with.

Google’s approach was different. They released an early beta project to a very few selected technology reporters, developers, and geek influencers to get them playing with the project. They gave them each 20 invite recommendations (yes, you still have to be chosen by the Wave committee). Basically, they handpicked a buzz group to be excited about their product. It may seem a bit heavy handed by Google, but they are also paying close attention to the feedback they’re getting. The technology group that they hand selected would are also the types of early adopters who help grow and shape a product in its infancy. Buzz also goes hand-in-hand with a community of users who can make your product great.

Microsoft’s approach is a classic push marketing model. We’re not sure we need a new version of Windows, lord knows the last upgrade was a mistake. So Microsoft had to saturate the advertising market and use all sorts of gimmicks to make us pay attention. We’re left with a feeling in our gut that Microsoft is desperate for our money which makes us a bit less likely to buy.

By limiting its user base to a select few and creating an exclusive kind of buzz, Google has created a classic pull market. People are excited for Wave invites and will take the time to really play with the technology and find good uses for it, because they’re one of the chosen few.

Push vs. Pull
In online marketing, the classic push model is flashy banner ads, spam emails, not-so-subtle twitter posts, etc. The pull model takes more work. You have to fill your site with good content, write interesting articles, and give your customers something special to discover and share with their friends. It takes more work, but in the long run, your customers will respect you more.

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Thursday, September 03rd, 2009 | Author: Zeke Camusio

b1Have you ever walked into a store, tried on a pair of pants and then come back a few days later to finally get them? Sometimes we make an impulse purchase, but we’re all much more likely to contemplate a purchase for hours, or days, or sometimes months before we commit. We’re all taught things like “It’s better to look before you leap.”

Online shopping exaggerates the problem. We tend to contemplate things for a long time, we look around the web for better prices, we read reviews, and then once we’ve finally reached our decision, we can quickly change our mind if we get even the slightest of bad feelings.

Here’s a good way to think about the buying cycle:

1.    Awareness: “I know I have a need and I think there’s a product that fits.”

2.    Information Gathering: “I’m going to look at all of the options out there.”

3.    Evaluate Alternatives: “I need to see what else is out there before I commit.”

4.    Purchase Decision: “I’m ready to buy.”

5.    After Purchase: “I’m going to compare my experience to what others say.”

Know How Make Them Tip
b2The next goal is to tip prospective clients from one phase to the next. If someone has just arrived at your site, they’re most likely in Step 2 or Step 3 of the process. This is good news, because you can tailor your copy to those two mentalities:

Information Gathering Phase:

•    You can help guide them through features and benefits.

•    You can attach emotion to the product or service through testimonials and photos.

Evaluate Alternatives Phase:

•    You can compare your product to other options.

•    You can show how you fit into the overall price, quality, and speed hierarchies.

Once someone feels comfortable with your product and the available options, they’re much more likely to move towards the buying decision.

Capture the Moment
b3Often when people make the decision to buy, it’s a fleeting thought that lasts only for a second. Think back to that example when you bought the pants. When did you actually make the decision to buy? How long between the decision and the actual purchase?

If you’re not available at the moment your customer decides to purchase, someone else can swoop in and steal them away. This is why online retailers make it easy with “one-click” buttons and special offers.

You can also tip a buying decision by being at the right place at the right time. A well-timed email, a lucky phone call, or a special offer can often help a customer commit. So put on your vigilant and unrelenting hat. Just think, it may be perfect timing.

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Tuesday, September 01st, 2009 | Author: Zeke Camusio

businessmanIn his brilliant book The Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris talks at length about how to build a fully automated business in a few weeks. Since he wrote the book a few years ago, the tools have become even more efficient and powerful. Let’s discuss how you can build a complete business in a weekend.

Step 1: Market Research – 30 Minutes
Spend some time with the Google Key Word Analyzer tools:
•    www.google.com/sktool/ - will let you look at keywords across all categories.

•    https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal - will let you really dig into keywords and determine exact traffic in your market

Choosing a market by starting with keyword analysis is an amazing 21st Century advancement. Market research used to take months of research in libraries, phone calling, and focus groups. Now you can do extensive market research in a few minutes.

When you’re looking for a market, pay attention to two important things:

1.    How competitive is the market?

2.    Is this something I actually care about?

It’s always a lot harder to run a business that you don’t care about.

Step 2: Choose a Product – A Few Hours
men_building_a_websitePick a product with decent margins and preferably in the $100-1000 range. This makes the financials much easier to work with. The best products are intellectual property that can’t easily be copied, like an e-book or a DVD package that you created. Take a look around on Clickbank.com or other affiliate programs for a product that fits your market. The goal is to be at a 4x to 5x mark up to maximize your profits.

It’s important to note that you don’t actually have to build a product right away. You can use this process to test a business model and see if it’s a viable industry to compete in.

Step 3: Build a website – One Afternoon
too-many-optionsThere’s a new tool we’ve been playing with for a few months. SquareSpace.com lets you build a complete website in literally a few minutes. It comes with all the tools you’d need:
•    Blog engine

•    Photo gallery

•    Analytics

•    Templates

•    Form Building and Data Collection

•    Custom Editing and Content Management

•    Fully export and import other blogs

The price tag is a tiny $8/month and you can get a full featured site for $14/month. What’s even more impressive is how a tool like this can help you build a real business in a really short time.

Most of your time will be spent writing the copy for the website. Copy writing can be tough, but make it easy on yourself:
•    Use Short Paragraphs

•    Use Bullet Point Lists

•    Use Lots of Sub Headlines

•    Keep Everything Short

•    Don’t Be Afraid to Be Light and Humorous

Use paypal.com to set up a “buy now” button for the amount of your product. You can explore more sophisticated payment options in the future, but paypal.com is free to set up and inexpensive to use.

Step 4: Buy Some Traffic – 2 Hours
You’ve done some keyword research, now it’s time to buy a bit of traffic and see if your product will work. Adwords.Google.com is incredibly fast and easy to set up. A few clicks and you can set up a campaign to start driving traffic to your product.

Step 5: Does it Work?
traffic_congestionRun Google Adwords for a few weeks and start to gather some data. You’ll get a good idea if your product works or not. There are tons of resources on this site on how to improve a PPC campaign, get better conversion rates, and boost traffic. But the most important thing is to get started right away.

If you can demonstrate that your business works, then you can start exploring ways to automate marketing and improve conversions. Once you have an automated business, you can move onto the next one.

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Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 | Author: Zeke Camusio

link_buildingLink building is an effective online marketing strategy and the key to your company’s success. If you strategically place your links, you’ll be surprised with the qualified traffic you get and how those links build and grow over time.  More links equals more sales and customers!

Keep the following “link building formula” in mind when building your campaign:
lb1•    Links from related sites are worth more than unrelated sites – This is basic common sense. If you have an e-commerce site that sells running apparel, you don’t links from sites that sell cars.  Choose links related to running apparel/running-related products.

•    You want high authority websites linking back to you – A link from a reputable news source such as CNN is worth more than a link from your friend’s parenting blog. It’s also advised to check the authority of the URL linking to you (and the page where the link to your site is located). Sometimes if a site is new they don’t have a PageRank yet. You can easily tell the reason behind why or why not a site has a PR.

•    Quality and Quantity of Links – You need to be aware of the quality of your links, where they originate, the quantity (are you getting a lot of links?) and your anchor text. Are you getting links with keywords you want to rank for in your anchor texts?

Remember that NOT all link building strategies are appropriate for EVERY business/company. You need to figure out what works best for your industry/niche and create your campaign accordingly.

Add Value to Your Content
The KEY to effective link building is to always, always add VALUE to the content you create. If you create bad, irrelevant content, no one will link to your site and you will have stopped your campaign in its track.

You also have to look like an authority in your field. You want to show visitors that you KNOW more than your competitors.  Remember to always add value with your content – how will your content solve a problem or make a person’s life easier?

Links will come to you VERY easily if you stand out with your content and make a unique statement. Link building is contagious and if you become well-known as an industry expert, friends of friends will tell their colleagues and the links continue to BUILD!

Create Natural Looking Links
The worst thing you could do is to make your links LOOK unnatural. Make your links look natural – do NOT create links with the same anchor text because the search engines will throw up red flags. Mix up your anchor text with “click here” or “check it out.”

Common Link Building Tools
lb2•    Web Directories – Add URLs to web directories such as DMOZ

•    Blog Directories – List in blog directories such as Blogarama

•    Article Directories – Add articles/content to free article distribution sites i.e. EzineArticles

•    Press Release Distribution Sites – Utilize free press release site such as PRWeb

•    Video Marketing – Post videos (include links) on YouTube

•    Social Media Sites – Don’t forget to post on all the social media sites such as Facebook, Digg, HugPages, etc.

•    Online communities/forums – Interact with online communities and forums – answer questions and participate (another way to be seen as an expert in your field)

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Thursday, August 06th, 2009 | Author: Zeke Camusio

link-building-servicesHave you ever noticed that when faced with competition that you usually perform better? Think about cyclist Lance Armstrong and his tough competition – do you think he doesn’t push himself to WIN when he’s cycling against other world-renowned cyclists in the Tour de France? Look at his huge successes over the years!

Competition makes us WANT to perform better and push ourselves to be winners. This same theory is applied to link building tactics.

Whether you like it or not, you have online competitors out there but don’t think about your competition in the negative sense. You can TAKE advantage of your competition. They have something YOU WANT –  LINKS!

It’s easy to find out what your competition is doing online – just follow these simple steps:

1.    Run a Google search and see what sites rank in the top 10 for the keywords you want to rank.  For example: the keyword phrase “California river rafting” brings up the top 10 “California river rafting” sites on Google. The #1 ranked site is http://www.arrafting.com

link-building-services12.    Use Yahoo Site Explorer to find out who’s linking to these top 10 sites.

3.    Submit the site’s URL http://www.arrafting.com. Click on “Inlinks” (the second tab) to see a listing of linked sites – over 700 links are found. Site Explorer allows you to click on the “Explore” button for each URL and find MORE links/information. This is a great resource tool because you literally have hundreds of your competitors’ links at your fingertips!

How to Get the Same Links as Your Competition

link-building-services2Your ultimate GOAL is to get the SAME links as your competition. Easier said than done but armed with a link building strategy, it can be accomplished!

Don’t reinvent the wheel. There are MANY link building tricks you could use but the following tips will bring you high ROI (and SAVES TIME!)

•    With a little research, you can find your competition on discussion forums and directories. Submit your sites to the same directory listings and play an active role on discussion forums. For example, if you are a copywriter and you found your competition’s links on copywriting forums online, you need to be there as well. Make yourself known on these forums and remember to add your link in your signature.

•    Blogs are another great way to get the same links as your competition. For example, if you are a real estate broker specializing in short sales and found your competition’s link on a short sales blog, you need to be there too. Email the blogger and request that they write an article about you and include your link. Make sure these are active blogs (you want their subscribers to link to you!)

•    Free article distribution sites are another great way to build links. If your competition’s links shows up on article sites, you need to be there too! Submit great content and make sure to include links in your byline/bio.

•    If you found your competition on opinion/review sites, add your two cents worth on these sites and include your link. Make sure you don’t come across as “spammy” when you include your links – provide good information/feedback on these sites.

•    Your competition is bound to be on social networking groups/pages such as Facebook so you also need to make your presence known. Add your links to these  groups. Join appropriate groups/sites according to where your competition is hanging out! Add a REAL, interactive presence to these social networking groups – don’t just spam links!

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