Women's Blog Ad Network & Lesbian Blog Ad Network

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Women's Blog Advertising Network Introduced!

Women's Blog Advertising Network Revamped and Revived; Featuring 130 of the Most Popular and Diverse Female Bloggers

The results are in and they're undeniable. Statistics show that women are 51% of the consumer market in the United States and in most areas of the country. This number is expected to increase to 60% by the year 2020. Additional research states that 76% of US women have identified themselves as the principal shopper in their household. The Consumer Electronics Association found that women influence 88% of household consumer electronics purchases in some fashion.

Women write 52% of all the blogs found in the blogosphere. A recent revival of the Women's Blog Advertising Network will allow businesses to leverage the power of both blogging and the incredible strength of a powerful network of women bloggers.

The Women's Blog Advertising Network (WBAN) has been revamped and revived. WBAN highlights 130 of the most diverse and the most popular women bloggers in the United States. The network features female political bloggers, sex bloggers, gossip bloggers, news bloggers, shopping bloggers, business bloggers, parenting bloggers, music bloggers, book bloggers, and even video bloggers. The network's ethnic makeup consists of caucasian bloggers, African American bloggers, Hispanic bloggers, Jewish bloggers, and multi-race bloggers.

Bloggers of note are: SistersTalk, A Socialite's Life, Celebitchy.com, Feministing, Ask Moxie, Second City Style. Bloggers in the Women's Blog Advertising Network receive over 9.5 million unique visitors per week.

Media buyers who want to target women in the Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans community should view: The Lesbian Blog Ad Network

WBAN's manager, G. V. Stevens, has an MBA in Marketing and has helped to create and implement dynamic internet marketing campaigns for both Ford and General Motors. Stevens works with business owners and marketing agencies that wish to target female net-savvy consumers.

View The Women's Blog Ad Network for more information.

Avoid Search Engine Spam -- Know What Your SEO Pro is Doing

Search Engine spamming will most likely result in your website getting blacklisted by all the major search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

AVOIDING SEARCH ENGINE SPAM

1. Avoid overusing keywords
2. Avoid placing repetitive keywords in alt tags
3. Avoid adding hidden text in an effort to saturate website with keywords. Take the time to write useful and relevant content on your website, including keywords in appropriate places.
4. Avoid creating doorway sites that contain duplicated content
5. Limit the amount of links purchased on unrelated websites that have a high PR

If you hire an SEO professional, make sure they aren't using any of the following tactics to help you increase your search engine rankings. You'll have short term results that aren't worth it in the long run.

What is Search Engine Optimization? Part 1

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization is meant to improve a website’s organic placements in search results. A properly designed and executed SEO campaign will dramatically improve your website's rankings in Google and other search engines. This process will also improve the volume and quality of search engine traffic sent to your website.

The Basic Components of SEO

Choosing relevant keywords

Optimized HTML tags

Optimized Meta tags

Optimized Header tags

Optimized ALT tags

Link Building

Director Listings

Blogging for SEO Purposes

About Keywords:

Keyword Frequency, Density, Prominence, and Proximity

Keyword frequency is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used on a webpage. In theory, the more often a keyword is used, the more relevance search engines give to that keyword. The most important keywords should be used most often. Overuse of keywords is considered SPAM and will result in a webpage getting blacklisted from search engines.
Keyword density is the ratio (or percentage) of keywords used within the total number of indexable words (words the search engines will read and file) on the page. Words like and, or, and the are not indexable words. Industry professionals suggest a 2 – 8% ratio. A keyword ratio over 30% is considered keyword SPAM.

Keyword prominence refers to the placement of keywords on the page. Keywords placed in header tags and located above the fold are considered more relevant than others.

Keyword proximity refers to the closeness of more than one keyword or keyword phrase. The closer the keywords are to each other, the better. For example:

(page 1) Search Engine Marketing
(page 2) Tips on Marketing Your website on Search Engines

If someone searched for the keyword phrase “search engine optimization,” page 1 will most likely appear first in search engines, assuming both pages are optimized equally. Remember, the word “on” is not an indexable word so Google reads the title as Tips Marketing Your website Search Engines. The rule of thumb here is to decide which term search engine users will most likely use to find your website.


Using Variations of Keywords

Users looking for information about designing countertops may use words like: kitchen counter, kitchen countertops, bathroom counter, bathroom countertop . . .

Using variations of the word will help generate search engine traffic from people who may not use common terms related to your product or business. Use Google’s free keyword tool to help you figure out the best keywords.


Choosing Keywords

Know your competitors’ keywords. One of the best ways to do this is to visit Google and Yahoo and perform a keyword search. Check both the organic and paid placements that appear. From there, visit each page on the first 3 – 5 pages of the results and analyze each site’s source code -- checking Meta tags, keyword tags, and header tags. Note similarities among competitors.

Use keyword tools provided by Webtrends.com and Google. These tools help webmasters figure out which keywords search engine users actual use versus the keywords a webmaster assumes they are using. Use Google’s free keyword tool to help you figure out the best keywords.

More in Part 2 . . .

For Professional MySpace Pages, Less is Best

You've probably seen all the "custom" MySpace pages full of bling. Flashing lights! Loud videos! Sparkly graphics! Floating graphics! And dozens of pretty pictures of children and pets. But wait . . . how professional is that?

Not very professional at all. Professional MySpace pages should look the part. The golden rule to follow is: Less is Best. 

Research shows that almost 60% of Internet users surf while at work (hopefully during a lunch break, right?). Since over half of the Internet users in the world are surfing from their office or cubicle, it's best to avoid placing music and videos on your professional MySpace page. If you absolutely must include either, make sure you set the coding so that the music does not automatically begin once the page loads and the end user has the option to turn the music on or off.

And since most users are surfing at work, that means they don't have a lot of time to read your page. They're probably shopping for that perfect wedding gift, shopping for the best car for their family, and with the last few minutes of their lunch break, swinging by your MySpace page to see what's up. Don't make the end user have to scroll through dozens of graphics just to read your message. Think about this: how do you feel when you're in a hurry and you have to scroll and scroll and scroll on a webpage to find the information you want?

Your MySpace page should look legitimate. Always place a link to your main website, a contact phone number, and an external email address on your page. Give the end user several different ways to contact you. If you prefer to remain as anonymous as possible, at least include a link to external website that will provide the end user with more information about your company or product.

Consistency is crucial with your MySpace page. Make sure you add your company logo to your page and make an attempt to make your MySpace page closely resemble your main website. Simply using the same color scheme will work wonders!

Good Email Marketing Will Turn Lookie Lookies Into Buyers

I received a phone call from a client named Thad who wanted more information on our Craigslist Lead Generating program.   He stated:

I'm paying about $400 per month for leads from another source. I receive about 18 leads per week, but it seems most of those people are just lookie-lookies and don't really want to spend any money. For what I'm paying for those leads, it's not worth it since most of those people aren't buying.

I spent the next half hour talking to Thad, trying to decide if the leads were indeed poor leads, or if the follow-up process he had in place was really the problem.

I explained to him:

I can sell you more leads for a lot less money, but it's still wasted cash if you don't have a proper follow-up system. Once you receive an email lead, that lead should be moved over to an aggressive email marketing campaign designed to turn lookie-lookies into buyers.

Breaking down the cost for each lead, we discovered that Thad is paying approximately $5.55 per Internet lead. That's really not bad considering automobile dealers are paying $25 - $30 per Internet lead. For Thad, that $5.55 is way too much, only because he's closing only about 5% of them. Ouch!

Implementing an aggressive email marketing campaign will result in an average close rate of 25% - 20% within 30 days, and 35% within 90 days. That's all fine and dandy, but what exactly is aggressive email marketing?

Use an Auto Responder for Your First Response Only
Auto responders are a good way to send customers basic information about your company almost immediately. We all know that customers want instant gratification, right? But, auto responders lose their appeal when your customer can tell she's received 5 emails in 5 days that look completely canned and generic. After your initial response, follow-up with your customer within 8 business hours to get more information about what she's really looking for. This is called the "Interview" step in the sales process. The Interview step allows you to learn more about your customer and it helps you begin to build rapport. Great rapport will help you seal the deal!

Creating Unique Emails Tailored to Your Customer
Now that you know more about your customer, you can tailor emails especially for her. Feel free to put those emails on an automatic scheduler so you don't forget to send them. If you use an email marketing tool like Constant Contact, make sure you check your email stats to see if/when your email was read. You should also check to see which links in your email (if any) your customer clicked on. This will tell you which items are her hot buttons and will help you even further tailor your customer's email campaign.

Send Coupons & Special Offers
Knowing your customers' hot button(s) means you can prod the fire just a little bit with special offers or discount coupons. If you noticed your customer is really interested in the Plasma TV you always list at the bottom of your email, send her a "15% off a Plasma TV" coupon. Coupons guarantee one thing: you customer will consistently read your emails because she's always checking for the next great deal!

How Often and How Long Should You Email a Lead?
In the car business, we had a saying, "Work a lead from birth to death." If you have paid for a lead, you should be working that lead until the lead dies (literally) or tells you to go away. In the first 5 days, your lead should receive at least 5 emails from you. If your lead provided a phone number, you should call at least twice in the first 5 days. After the first 5 days, you should contact your lead once a week for a full 90 days. I know that seems a bit redundant, but aggressive email marketing will turn those lookie-lookies into buyers. If you're worried that your lead will stop reading your emails, don't fret! Creating unique emails catered to your lead's hot buttons will assure that your emails are opened and read.

Good Subject Lines Will Help Raise Your Open Rate
How many times have you seen an email with a subject line that makes you roll your eyes and hit the delete button (or the SPAM button)? If you know your customer's hot buttons, you can create exciting subject lines that urges readers to OPEN instead of DELETE. Going back to the Plasma TV example, a good subject line in this case would be: 15% Discount Coupon on PLASMA TV INSIDE! Using an email marketing tool like Constant Contact will help you monitor your subject line success rate. If you noticed that some subject lines work better than others, keep using them! Just make sure you tailor them to your customer's hot button.

Avoiding overuse of auto responders, creating unique emails for each customer, sending coupons & special offers, and using good subject lines all spell SUCCESS for your email marketing campaign. If you ever need any help, we're just a phone call away: 877.432.9833

Intergrating All Your Online Marketing Efforts

If you're fortunate enough to afford traditional advertising like newspaper, radio, and television, then you're probably already ahead of the game when it comes to integrating those traditional advertising mediums with your Internet Marketing.  If you're lagging behind (or haven't even started!), this article will provide a few simple tips that will help you get the best return on [your] investment (ROI)

Place Website Address in Advertisements
Your website address should be listed in every advertisement you run -- be it television, newspaper, radio, magazines. In addition, your website address should be placed on any and all promotional items your company distributes: tshirts, hats, pens, coffee mugs, coasters, etc. You want to literally bombard your customers with your web address, so much so that when your customer wants to shop at 2 am, she's heading directly to your website and not a search engine to look for your competitor's website.

Use an 800 Number to Track Effectiveness of Ads
There are so many toll free 800 number services online that you're certain to find one that meets your budgeting needs. Placing a unique 800 number on each advertisement will help you determine where your ad dollars are best spent. Most 800 number services provide an online tracking system that allows you to see the following: who called, the time the call came in, and the caller's location. You will need this information for a few reasons:

1. If you miss a call, you can use your online caller ID feature to return the call. Simply tell your customer, "My name is John Doe from ABC Company . My caller ID tells me I missed a call from you on Saturday night at 11:15 pm. How can I be of assistance to you?"

2. Your caller's location will tell you which areas of the country are responding the most to your ads. Use a tool like the White Pages' Reverse Phone Look Up to determine the customer's location. You might even get lucky enough to get the customer's name and address as well. Just don't address them by name when you call if you're returing the initial phone call. You wouldn't want to look like Big Brother calling from Homeland Security. If you are lucky enough to snag a name and address, move that information to your direct mailing list and send special promotions via snail mail.

3. Finding out the time of day your ads are most effective will save you a ton of money on advertising. For example, if you're running television ads at various times of the day and you noticed you receive the most calls with your evening slot than you do your afternoon slot, you know you need to move more advertising dollars to your evening slot. Also, if you notice you're receiving more calls with the one ad you run on Friday nights than all the ads you run Monday - Thursday, you know you need to perhaps double your Friday night ads and do away with Monday - Thursday ads. That's just as example for illustration purposes.

Create Mini Websites for Special Promotions
When I performed work for a local Ford dealership, our company built 20 different mini websites for the dealership. After creating those 20 different mini pages, we then launched an aggressive integrated marketing campaign. Each website had its own 800 number. We then created various Google Adwords campaigns for each website. Using Adwords' backend analysis tool and the tracking tool provided by the 800 company, we were able to determine a lot about the dealership's customer base: hot buttons, favorite cars, keywords used to find the company website, and the time of the day the customer shops.

Ask for Email Addresses from All Customers
Employees should ask for an email address from every customer who calls. If you're running a successful television ad, your phone is ringing off the hook! Train your employees to ask for an email address from anyone who calls. If they have trouble asking, tell them to say this, "So you don't miss any special discount coupons and promotions, may I have your email address? We send those promotions via email." Customers love free and discounted stuff (like you wouldn't believe!) so getting an email address will be a lot easier than pulling teeth. I promise. Once you have that email address, begin an aggressive email marketing campaign

Integrating all your marketing efforts into one convenient online tracking tool will yield amazing results. You should see two things: a decrease in advertising costs and an increase in sales.

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We have several posts regarding MySpace Marketing, but here's the most recent: MySpace Markteting Works