As you may or may not know link building is a tedious task that no one likes to do..  (Unless you’re some kind of link geek)

BUT…   It’s necessary if you want to get your blog posts ranked and your videos ranked in the almighty Google.  I’ve been using tribe pro for quite awhile, but was getting sick of paying the high monthly costs involved.  I was paying close to $150 a month for tribe pro and an onlywire accounts.  And I’m not 100% convinced that it was working.  So I found something better that is a fraction of the cost.  And it’s called Social Monkee

There are many media outlets that allow a businessperson to shout out to the world what it is they have to offer.  While making sure that audience is going to be interested, make sure that what you have to offer is actually interesting.

Yes, there are many people out there who conduct and give interviews with online and offline mediums but not really sure how to grab people and get them on board ASAP.  And you want to snag them now because they may forget to bookmark or write down your URL.

The beauty of doing this online is that you can get practice answering important questions about your brand.  Marketing companies and e-merchants normally have a link on their site that will show the normal questions being asked.  If there is an industry blog that interests you, they normally send over questions before it goes live.

While you do not need a publicist to give you the “right” answers, knowing how to avoid the traps of “yes” and “no” questions will definitely work in your favor.  Publishers also reserve the right to not publish an interview if they feel the answers are stale or generic.

Here are some ways to guarantee publication –

• Keep answers short, sweet and to the point. If the question requires a Y/N answer, add a sentence or two that will emphasize how good you are.
• Avoid going into the long history behind a product or service. This can be tricky as many people will fall in love with a hard-luck story (such a person who struggled to succeed in an industry) and possibly be inspired by it.  If there is a way to tell it to where it cannot be be butchered in the process, then go with it as a PR angle.
• Do not speak ill of the competition – or anyone, for that matter.  This not only shows class on your part but the more focus you place on what you have to offer will place you further ahead financially than witty comments made about another person of company.  Though you may see celebrities do it, think about the ones (like Barbra Streisand or Robert Redford) who have not had to resort to such childish tactics.

In the cast of a podcast or audio interview –

• Practice how your voice will sound as well as your answers.  (See if you can get the questions ahead of time)
• Try to smile while speaking in your normal voice.
• Keep answers to the point, if possible.

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a popular marketing tool that seeks interview subjects often in a variety of topics.  It is free to join and receive daily alerts.  By using a generic query template, you can state why you would be a perfect interview subject based on your professional experience and education.  If you feel that your personal history may be beneficial, go with this is as well.  HARO alerts come out up to three times a day and immediate response to these interview is best in order to be considered.

You know the names like Perez Hilton, your favorite About.com (or Examiner/Yahoo Voices/Huffington Post) contributor. Or even your favorite celebrity that has found a nice stream of income by blogging.
And here you are, wasting away at a job you hate with a passion, while that cool product you developed a some time ago has the potential to be profitable but needs the right promotion.

Good blogging does not require hours and hours of weekly writing that result in pennies (do the math by counting your time AND your bills if you don’t believe this). Some people become discouraged when they realize that planning comes with making a profit, just like every other business.
Having Content Worth Reading (and Sharing)

While there is no set format to writing successful posts, you have to publish something of interest in the first three sentences. Search engines will publish these (or a portion) as a summary that can be viewed online.
The other important factor is the reader. Rambling about something that is irrelevant to the blog headline within the first 30 seconds of reading will bring a loss. Even veteran bloggers have suffered the consequences of being self-absorbed at one time or another. Repeat offenders found that they lost their audience to the competition.
Creating a Great Headline

This is what will draw in readers, but how?
1) Use action words
2) Get to the point
3) Make the headline interesting

While there are many words to choose from, here are a few that bloggers and authors have found to be effective when getting attention.

Breakthrough
Discover
Get
How-to
Incredible
Instant
Learn
Tips
Unlimited
Consistency

You can publish mindless content daily and make a few dollars.
You can publish meaningful content monthly (or less) and make a few dollars.
So with this simple math, this means for the person looking to make a name for themselves, they will want to publish interesting content at least three times a week in order to be successful. This will help to establish an audience quickly, your content will be backlinked often and you could possibly become a respected source in your industry. This doesn’t happen overnight or within a month. However, providing a voice that is interesting, informative and is really you will bring in a legitimate audience in little time with the right marketing.
Syndication
This can be in form of enabling the RSS feature on your blog, social bookmarking or writing a similar topic for a content management company like About, Examiner or Yahoo Voices (formerly known as Associated Content). These are respected as new applicants are screened, writer training is offered (or mandatory before going live) and there is high traffic. If using bookmarking or other social mediums, make sure that all content is tagged correctly and correctly categorized (no ‘miscellaneous’ or general categories like Automobile or Food). If your specialty is is antique auto parts or baking French desserts, choose those mediums that will make it easy for readers to find you.
Advertisers and Affiliate Programs

In the initial stages, it’s common to want an alliance with anyone that deals with a newbie blog. This is not bad but most reputable social marketers normally want a blog that has a certain number of posts and has been live for at least a few months. Some will only accept blogs with an Alexa page ranking of 2 or better and some companies will not accept those with less than a 6 page ranking.

These are weak marketing tactics that include soft sales, market data that is weak, ineffective advertising and undefined goals.

One or more of these can happen to the new online businessperson in the early stages. While it may be easy to dismiss this as “the learning curve”, this is costing money and your precious time.

Aggressive Promotion vs. Assertive Promotion
Though many have had to learn this at one time or another, successful persons apply this to their sales techniques. Even the person that is naturally shy or feels that the constant plugging of their product may kill future sales, there is a way to go about this that will be productive.

Assertive – 1) Targeted toward a particular demographic; and 2) Tells them the benefits of the service.

Example: Men, are you tired of razor cuts and bumps? Try a new product that smells great, heals instantly and does not burn!

Aggressive – 1) Distributed to general audiences; and 2) Simply gives a call to action without definition.

Example: Buy ShaveAway now while it’s still on the shelves!

Now the last example is not bad when used as a closing paragraph to content that describes the benefits and features. However, there are some that will use a sentence like this as part of a Twitter campaign and achieve few results.

Generalizations
Just about every new businessperson, whether online or offline, tends to feel that everyone can benefit from their product because it reflects in their marketing. While this feeling may have some truth to it, it is up to that businessperson to create specialty group that define need. This makes a huge difference in marketing campaigns and promotional strategies.

For instance, you have a cleaning product that removes all types of stains fast. It is non-toxic, eliminates odors and has a great aroma.

While the young, swinging bachelor that entertains at home often may consider buying this but the housewife that takes pride in having an impeccable home (or loves scents or products that may be ”green”) is most likely to bring a sale.

If the promotional angle is the price, then gather sufficient data that compares your product to others on the market in terms of effectiveness and value.

Case Studies and Data

People want to know how something works, or in this case why they should switch over to your product.

This is an excellent angle for someone that will use streaming video as part of their marketing strategy. While this takes planning, you can supplement online content with linked citations from reputable sources.

Target Advertising

Cheap advertisement s and promotional products without a goal are a waste of time and money. While you may be happy at the thought of spending $10 or $20 a month on Google Adwords, your net return may only be 25% of the money spent for the entire year.

Rather than spend $240 annually on a campaign that may only generate one $50 sale, why not spend $100 or more upfront on something that will bring repeat sales of $50 or more?

With planning and monitoring, you can note progress and make adjustments to your campaign accordingly. E-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon as well as hosts that offer shopping cart services have tools that will help in analysis.

Being consistent is also key whether you use social media or not as part of your marketing strategy.

Sometimes when we open our social network pages, we may find invites or similar communication from a source that is unfamiliar to us.  While Facebook may list the connection, other sites may be vague as to how this person knew to contact us.

Chances are strong that they did an manual search of people in their network that have a common interest.

A businessperson, knowing this helps your target marketing a great deal.  In fact, if you are a seller of hard-to-find musical recording (or albums), perusing through the contact list of an up-and-coming DJ may certainly be to your advantage.  Not only are you likely to find other DJs with similar musical interests but you may find fans that may appreciate your collection well enough to become a sale.

Making an Introduction

After compiling a list, this is where you will want to use your elevator pitch (describes your business or purpose in 30 seconds or less).  Add your URL or place a link within the text, if possible.

Here’s an example -

Hi ______,

If you like golden oldies, classic American standards or can’t get enough disco, I’ve got rare recordings for less than what most storefronts sell.  All inventory is in excellent condition or visit [URL] to create your own custom CD.  We also have rare online interviews with some of the recording artists from yesteryear who made some of your favorites.  Visit our blog and see what you may have been missing!

Dr. Jonny Fever, Owner of Retrorecords.biz

In a short paragraph, you have listed three benefits the user will receive by visiting your website.

Here’s another that will work with Twitter -

Get rare music from the 1920s to the 1980s, in good condition, for less!  Make your own CD, shop or read interviews by yesterday’s music stars today.  We also buy clean, original recordings!

Keeping Them Interested

Your online business is probably similar to our record merchant friend where you may take on the role of salesperson, inventory clerk and administrative support with some legal knowledge.

In other words, you wear many hate and realize that blogging (your part-time or “on call” job) is different than social media networking for a business.  While blog posts can be used as a marketing tool, a little variety is helpful.

If you’re not up to hiring a contractor, here are some quick content ideas -

Create a poll of your readers’ favorite items.

Add videos from YouTube that they may find unique – amd relevant.

Link to other articles of related interest.

While you may wish you could post daily, this is not always possible.  A realistic goal would be three times a week, so if your readers were to step away for a couple of days, they would find new content.

Getting Started

By investing 2-3 hours a week researching your connections for new customers, you can easily grow an audience without spending a dime.

While there is software and people that will do this for you, it not only costs but can impose 3rd party marketing on you and your clients.  Being in control is best and the least expensive.