1. Link Building 2. Site Content 3. Advertising 4. Marketing 5. Viral Marketing 6. Affiliate Marketing 7. Search Engine Optimization 8.

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1 1. Link Building 2. Site Content 3. Advertising 4. Marketing 5. Viral Marketing 6. Affiliate Marketing 7. Search Engine Optimization 8. Landing Page Optimization

2 LINK BUILDING & SITE CONTENT I m rolling these two into one discussion because they are so closely linked. Having other websites link to your site can increase your page rank, drive more traffic to your site, and generate a trust (meaning if other trustworthy sites are linking to you, you must also be a trustworthy site). 1. Directories a. Search Engines - b. Online business directories - Google Places, Yahoo Directory, Facebook Places c. Join your local Chamber to be listed in their online directory d. Apply to the Better Business Bureau - e. Join trade organizations f. Craigs List is FREE! g. Create a Wiki Page 2. LINK AUTHORITY: Visitors will deem your site trustworthy if you a. Have content that is easy to find and understand b. Use correct grammar and spelling c. Have an easy to find privacy policy 3. BE SOCIAL: and when you do, make sure a link to your site is in your signature! a. Leave quality contributions in relevant forums b. Review relevant products c. Leave testimonials d. Comment on other relevant blogs e. Answer relevant questions on forums or sites like Yahoo! Answers. 4. TRADE LINKS a. Ask business partners if they would be willing to trade links b. Find non-competitive businesses in the same industry to trade links with. 5. PAY FOR LINKS a. PPC: Google Adwords and other paid advertising can generate relevant traffic because it pin points a certain demographic based on keywords and geographic location. b. Pay for a link on a relevant website c. Avoid paid link networks. Google gives demerits for this.

3 SITE CONTENT: Get people to link naturally to your content by providing content people will use and pass along. 1. LISTS. a. Top 10 lists b. 10 Myths c. 10 easy tips d. lists of experts 2. Create an extensive resource library 3. MAKE IT EASY TO LINK a. Share this button b. Facebook like button c. Send to friend button d. Bookmark option 4. ALLOW INTERACTION a. post comments b. ratings c. reviews 5. Perform and publish a study or survey 6. BLOG a. You don t have to post every day. You don t have to post original info. You can post links to other relevant websites (they ll appreciate the link... see how having a resource library can help? Let others pass your info around!) b. However... don t let the blog go too stagnant. Visitors seeing your last post was from 2009 can affect your reliably/trustworthy points. Google doesn t like stagnant content either.

4 VIRAL MARKETING 1. CONTESTS: Engage your current audience to help you build a larger audience a. Run a get 1000 Facebook fans and someone wins an ipod contest b. Submit a review and you re entered to win 2. CREATE AMUSING OR CONTROVERSIAL MEDIA a. Make a video b. Post photos of events c. Write about a restricted event or controversial subject D. check meme trackers for trending topics 3. CHARITY & COMMUNITY: Shows you care about your community while building brand awareness. a. Charities will usually post sponsor links on their website (good for link building) b. Run an ebay auction for charity c. Sponsor a local team or event - make sure you re website address goes on the tshirts or marketing materials! 4. FREE SAMPLES a. Everyone wants free and will pass the opportunity onto their friends. b. Combine with a contest... after sampling, provide feedback for a chance to win!

5 MARKETING 1. BUILD YOUR LIST a. buy a relevant list b. past customers c. Add To Mailing List module on website d. List sheet at storefront e. Put tear off sign up on receipts f. Provide comment cards with line 2. YOUR LIST a. New products b. Specials & Coupons c. Company News & Announcements

6 AFFILIATE MARKETING is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. a. Rewards sites - where users are rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site. b. Networks - Commission Junction - or Google Affiliate offer Revenue Sharing or Cost Per Click programs c. Create your own network with software or hosted service d. Comparison shopping websites and directories - ebiz.com e. Coupon and rebate websites that focus on sales promotions - groupon.com f. Weblogs and website syndication feeds - simple.com

7 ADVERTISING You can track your campaigns to see if they are working. Make sure you include a custom URL for each campaign, such as yourdomain.com/chartermay. Run an ad on Charter with an incentive to go to that URL - coupon, discount, sale, etc. Use Google Analytics to see how many times people used that landing page. How many people purchased with that sale or coupon code? Percentage viewed to percentage purchased can tell you if your campaign money was well spent or if you should move those advertising dollars elseware. 1. COUPONS: Keep buyers coming back a. Offer coupons to those who post reviews b. Offer a coupon as soon as they register for an account on your site c. Post coupons on your social media sites d. Post a coupon in relevant forums e. retailmenot.com 2. PPC advertising a. Google Adwords b. Facebook c. MySpace d. Paid links 3. PRINT: a. newspapers b. magazines c. local directories, place mats, newsletters 4. RADIO 5. CABLE TV

8 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION 1. KEYWORDS: Make a list of your top 12 keywords use them every where a. domain name b. URLS c. header tags d. title tags e. image names f. ALT text g. meta tags h. content 2. NAVIGATION a. Loads fast b. Try for two clicks to any page - no deeper than 4 clicks. c. Link only to good, trustworthy sites. d. Validate all outgoing links periodically e. Google says limit to 100 outgoing links from your site, but accepts more 3. CONTENT a. Freshness of page, links b. Amount of content change c. Frequency of updates 4. POSITIVE FACTORS a. links coming in b. time visitor spend on site c. increase in traffic = trending d. if visitors bookmark (offer a bookmark link) e. age f. site map 5. NEGATIVE FACTORS a. Text in graphic form b. Over Optimization - using keywords too many times, meta tag stuffing, etc. c. Bad links - don t link to d. Vile language e. Stolen images or text f. Too frequent content change g. 1 year registration period h. Flash (not readable by search spiders) i. Code violations (make sure your webmaster validates and 508 the code)

9 LANDING PAGE OPTIMIZATION 1. Know When To Keep It Simple "give-it-to-me quick-or-i'm-out-of-here" very focused and pretty simple. Help the visitor to your landing page digest what you are offering quickly and easily. Use short paragraphs and bullet points. reader = "Why should I take the action you want me to take?" - tell them 2. Tell Them Where They Are: Actually put the words "Welcome, Web Digest For Marketers Subscribers" Don't Take Over My Computer: Don t get too tricky and try to wow your visitors. Often this frustrates visitors because they've lost control of their own computers. They may well get that control back by simply closing their browsers - and you are a goner. Remember, many computers aren't running the latest apps. So your brand image then becomes a dialog box that says you can't view this site because you don't have the latest version of whatever. Again, keep it simple and stay on message. 4. Offer Multiple Calls to Action: Have links at the top, bottom and in between. Make it easy for visitors to take action whenever they're ready. Track everything. Try to custom tag each link so you know which ones are the most used. This will come in handy for the next time. If you have a multi-stage process, like a survey, shopping cart, or registration form, see where you lose people and work on that. Don't offer escape routes. Don t offer the visitor options to get side-tracked. There is a delicate balance between educating them as to who you are and why they should do business with you 5. Experiment With Your Registration Forms: Common wisdom is that you lose 30% of your respondents for each registration field. There are different schools of thought on what to do here: 1. Just get an address so you can start as many new relationships as possible and get more registration info down the road. 2. Get a few fields of data so you can more easily qualify your A leads from your B leads and C leads, etc. A good rule of thumb I find is ask for only the data the user thinks you'll need to go about your business. So a phone number, title, company, and maybe time frame of purchase seems reasonable. But income level is not. 6. Revisit Your Encore Page: That's the page you get after someone has submitted their information Offer them a subscription to your newsletter, or someone else's newsletter (assuming

10 that other newsletter does the same for you) or give them an incentive to take a survey. Or try to upsell them or cross sell them. Don't just stand there, do something. 7. Take Nothing For Granted: What's obvious to you is not so obvious to other people, especially when they are from another company or a different part of the world. Repeating something for purposes of clarity is usually appreciated 8. Test Multiple Landing Pages: What sort of things might you test using multiple landing pages? 1. Try different subject headers, if you're using solo messages to drive traffic there. 2. Experiment with how many fields you ask for in your request form. 3. Test the length of your copy. Yes, I typically suggest keeping copy short. But what you're selling may need more explanation, and the visitor might not pull the trigger without knowing more. You won't know until you test this. 10. Follow Eye-Tracking: Look at someone who's looking at your landing page for the first time. Follow their eyes. Do they follow the usual "Z" path down a page? Are your visual cues helping them advance down the funnel to the call to action? "What would make it clearer for you?" Very often the reply is exactly the improvement the landing page needs.