“Five Newsworthy Stories for Your Next Press Release” plus 1 more

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Five Newsworthy Stories for Your Next Press Release Posted: 13 Sep 2012 01:01 PM PDT This guest post is by Frank Strong of Vocus. Most bloggers understand that online press releases can drive traffic. Press releases are powerful ways to reach people through search. As Lee Odden wrote in his book Optimize, "search is an explicit expression of need or want" and online press releases provide the means to reach people at the precise time they are expressing that need. This of course can result in one thing many bloggers desire the most: traffic. ProBlogger has offered reasons to use press releases to promote a blog, and very sound editorial guidance on how to turn a press release into a blog post. However, there's one piece of insight that's missing: idea. In other words, what are we going to write a press release about? This is especially important for the better press release distribution services. They must enforce editorial guidelines or risk having their content rejected by distribution partners. The biggest catch?  We've got to have a news angle—that is, there's got to be something new in our announcements.  I've seen bloggers struggle with this concept the most, and so here's a few ideas that I've found make great press releases that are effective and simple to produce. 1. More reads for the most read As bloggers, we know that to build a community, we've got to blog consistently.  The same is true for online releases: we need to develop a regular cadence for our announcements.  One very easy way is to announce our most read blog posts every quarter.  Take a look at your analytics and determine which posts earned the most unique visitors and then write a press release about it.  Is the media going to call us?  Probably not, but we'll definitely earn some traffic and hopefully repeat visitors.  This works best if we can find a trending angle—as you can see my company follows our own advice and earned 1,000 new visitors with this release. 2. Themes emerge in blogs Sometimes bloggers like to experiment with an idea—we get a hunch and the float the idea on our blog to gauge the reaction. One idea leads to another and the next thing we know, we've got a whole series of blog posts. As they say in the news business, three is a trend, so look for a trend that emerges from all time we've invested in blogging and find those emergent themes. Then, write a press release that illustrates the trend just like a hard news story you might read on a major news site. In this case, your press release is the story. 3. Research is newsworthy Matt Landau is like any other entrepreneur trying to make a living. To promote his business, he does what good marketers all do well: he's active on social media, publishes a blog, and contributes content elsewhere. He's got a niche in vacation rental marketing and over the years has accrued wisdom that he's turned into products, like reports, guidebooks and research he sells on his blog.  For one of his latest products he spent $199 on a press release and earned $3,850 in bookings.  However, he is cautionary against suggesting such success can come overnight.  During a phone conversation, Matt noted that content marketing is a "slow, long hard process that requires a commitment, but if you are confident and persistent, that persistence pays off."  The lesson?  Consistency matters. 4.  The news before the news Starting a review site?  Want products to review on a blog?  We've got to tell someone about it if want them to come—building it isn't enough. Marie Howard was tired of lousy beauty products and started a blog, Howard House Reviews, to review beauty products for women.  And she announced it to the world.  Ah, but that's only a one-time announcement, right?  No. The consumer industry has sales seasons and so too should review blogs.  Journalist Beeb Ashcroft announced her Holiday Gift Guide for 2012 which will help drive traffic, but also attract new products to review, and in turn, drive more traffic. There's an announcement for every season. 5. Announce what's new Satyam Kumar is a yoga teacher that knows how to promote his business. He blogs, he has a newsletter, and he creates audio podcasts and video tracks for practicing the various yoga techniques he teaches and he hosts them on his blog.  When he uploads a newest yoga podcast, he puts out an announcement about it and is careful to point out to readers they can subscribe on iTunes, so he gains not just visitors, but subscribers.  This tactic can work well for any sort of new content we produce on our social outposts and embed on our blogs: the latest YouTube video you embedded on demonstrating your software, or the latest speaking presentation just posted to SlideShare.  If this works well, double down and post the five most views SlideShare presentations to the blog and announce that too. Get tactical—and practical—with your next release These ideas are not strategic—they are tactical and intended to be practical ways to promote a blog with press releases.  There's a quotation often attributed to Hinduism that might well apply: "An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea." Frank Strong is the director for Vocus, which also owns PRWeb, Help a Reporter out (HARO), iContact and North Social.  Follow @PRWeb on Twitter for more tips on press releases. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Five Newsworthy Stories for Your Next Press Release

Why Google Loves My Blogs (and How to Get it to Love Yours) Posted: 13 Sep 2012 07:04 AM PDT This guest post is by Melody McKinnon of Canadians Internet Business. The latest algorithm updates from Google have broken the hearts of many blog owners. The search engine appears to have lost interest in many of them. Yet on every website and blog I own, my attention from Google has increased—even on blogs less than a year old. Naturally, I want to stay in Google’s good books so I’ve given this a lot of thought. I’ve concluded that Google is simply looking for blogs with a personality worthy of its love. It’s no longer a matter of superficial gestures and pretty words. This somewhat fickle search engine uses several factors to determine if you are ‘the one’, and I happen to meet that criteria by nature. I prefer to write (and read) posts that are packed with information that may not be easy to find online. I write for people and what they’re searching for. I answer the question, “What would I be happy to find if I was searching for this topic?” When that task is complete, I go back and lightly optimize for organic search. I’m consistently active on social media. I’ve built quality relationships with other bloggers. I’ve been marketing online since the 90′s. I’ve seen every manipulative trick and they all had one thing in common: they came back to bite people on the butt every single time. Desperately seeking Google is trying harder to find what people are looking for these days, so it helps to view the search engine as a person rather than an entity. If Google placed a personal ad, here’s what it would be seeking: Good looks and a great smile: custom design, limited advertising, and shareable images. Charm: social media and blog interaction. Give them something to talk about. Friendly and open: user-friendly blogs with easy commenting. Intelligence: deep, meaningful content that is truly useful. Unique: dare to be different and create unique content. Good listener: cater to the searcher, not the search engine. Are you really giving them what they’re looking for? Integrity: are you a cheater? Manipulation has no place in a good relationship with Google. Neither does copyright infringement, illegal activities, or hate content. Long walks on a Vancouver beach: geographically-specific content when applicable. Sincerity: thinly disguised advertising, superficial posts built around keywords, and buying links will not be tolerated. Highly respected: Google respects those who are respected by websites it respects. You may have to repeat that a few times to get it! Great attitude: upbeat stories, suitable for a family audience. Hang with a good crowd: avoid linking to, or being linked to by, the “slums” of the Internet. No hookers please: there’s nothing wrong with making money with your blog. The key is to give more than you get. Love yourself: you can’t expect anyone else to love you if you don’t love yourself. Produce a blog that you would love to read. Love them back: sign up for Google+ and take the time to learn how to use it. Add both a follow and share button to your blog. Oh Google, your love means so much to me. I’m inspired by your efforts to control your wandering eye and focus on those who are truly worthy of your attention. You make me feel like the most special website in the world wide web! Melody McKinnon holds 52 certifications in business, marketing, writing, nutrition, biochemistry & general sciences. She blogs for the newly relaunched Canadians Internet Business, All Natural Pet Care, and Petfood Industry Magazine. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Why Google Loves My Blogs (and How to Get it to Love Yours)

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Why do some SEO bloggers get away with selling links? Posted: 13 Sep 2012 07:39 AM PDT Google makes it pretty clear – buy links and it could get your site banned.  And numerous site owners who have done just that have faced the wrath of Google's banhammer.  Google wants you not to sell links to manipulate PageRank, or if you do, add a nice and tidy little "nofollow" tag to the links or make it a redirecting link with the redirect link blocked via robots.txt. Not all paid links violate our guidelines. Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results. Links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as: Adding a rel=”nofollow”  attribute to the <a> tag Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file From the Google Webmaster Tools answer about Paid Links So why is it that some SEOs who are selling links as "sponsors" have been given a free pass by Google to be spammy and sell links?  And what kind of example is it setting for learning webmasters to see their favorite SEO blogs selling links and getting away with it? Take SERoundtable for example.  Barry Schwartz has been selling links for years – and has boasted about not putting a nofollow tag on any of the links he sells.  He also claims he IS penalized, but anyone doing any SEO related searches for any newsy SEO story will always see Barry and SERoundtable front and center. As you can see, I am making a conscious decision to leave the paid links here despite the PageRank and ranking penalty. Why? I had those links there prior to Google’s paid links guideline I always clearly labeled them as paid links for humans to see Google reads this blog, they know about the paid links and I know they discredit them I am stupid I am incredibly stubborn, ask my wife You see, I just don’t want to change. This is how I had it, this is how I want it to be. I know the links do little value to those buying them. I believe, I really do, that the sponsors of this site do it because they want to support the site and the industry. Proof? I am posting this, they can read it and pull their links at any time. So why won’t I nofollow them then? Because I am stubborn and I am one of the few SEO blogs that decided to not change when Google unleashed their penalty (again, Google has to do it and I commend them for it). He says he is penalized and will take the hit to do his site his way (and no doubt getting anti-Google fans in the process), but is he really?  The only thing noticeable is that his PageRank may be a pretty shabby PR3, but that is still fairly respectable.  And you can guarantee those sponsored links just aren't there by the advertisers good heart and wanting to support the industry (really, Barry?)  And yet, when he thinks someone is selling links, he has no qualms of outing THEM. Now, it isn't just SERountable who gets away with it.  SearchEngineJournal (PR6) also is selling links – ironically including those to textlinkbrokers and an affiliate link to textlinkads.  SiteProNews (PR5) is also selling "Recommended Links" and a slew of footer links.  But both SearchEngineWatch and SearchEngineLand are doing it right with nofollows and Doubleclicks ads/redirects on anything that looks like a paid link (although I didn’t delve into blog posts to look for suspicious blog posts). But this brings up the very real – and scary – question.  Should SEO sites that are “big enough” or “newsy enough” be given a pass to sell links and not face a penalty?  If Google can banslap a site like Forbes selling links that Barry Schwartz outted, then shouldn’t Barry and other companies also get banned for doing the exact same thing?  And more importantly – why aren’t they? Looking for an SEO service that won’t get you banned?

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