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Think a press release is an outdated, "old media" approach to marketing? Think again.

There are countless studies and articles highlighting the benefits of a press release for online businesses. From generating traffic, inbound links and business or product buzz, to getting positive press and top billing on search results, the new online marketing standards certainly include press releases as a vital and important component for better exposure. But it isn't as simple as writing a release and sending it off; there are many factors when it comes to effectively using a press release to market your business. Here's some things to consider to ensure you're getting the most out of a press release and why you should have done one yesterday:

1. Good writing - it's in there.Your press release is only as good as its content. Don't be fooled into thinking you can take a look at some samples online and put together a blockbuster press release for your business. There are industry experts for a reason; a well-written press release will draw more attention, generate more traffic, and put a professional shine on your business that will scream "do business with me!" Press releases can get rejected or find the trash very easily, so make sure your release will catch the readers interest quickly and meet all the industry standards, or don't expect much of a response.

2. Optimization is not an option.Your press release must be optimized for search engines, news sites and online media. Not optimizing your release is like making a fantastic bottle of wine and super-gluing the cork in. Every online extension of your business should be optimized these days to get the best potential exposure, including your website, press release, business blog, articles, social media advertising and links. With optimization comes an easier road for your customers to find you, so swing that door wide open.

3. Distribute. Everywhere.

Distribution of your press release is just as important as content or optimization - once the masterpiece is created, it's time to unveil. Distribution is a numbers game; the more avenues of publication available to your release, the better chance of discovery, syndication and popularity. Again, don't fall victim to the "free press release" services - typically they'll only submit your release to a limited number of sources, stiffeling its potential to both engines and readers. Professional services are the best bet, reaching all major publications and opt-in freelance journalists through RSS, email and the like.

Stats for Press Releases:

The potential benefit from a well-done press releases is pretty incredible. It can build your brand, generate link popularity, increase company credibility and be a great source of immediate traffic and business, among other things. Let's look at some sample stats so we can get a snapshot of the potential effect this simple marketing practice can deliver (keep in mind that this is one experiment - results vary from market to market and depend on many variables).

Stats taken from http://www.marketingexperiments.com/internet-online-advertising/press-release-tested.html

9 press releases issued over a period of time generated:

• 5442 direct visitors, an average of over 600 visitors per press release (distribution limited to a single state, and an average of 530 distribution editors per release).
• A five-fold increase in the number of direct incoming links to the website, 1250 links to 12,500 links (over a six-month period).
• 14 interviews with media reps, resulting in additional traffic and links.
• On average, traffic that was 38.9% less expensive than comparable traffic from a PPC campaign.
• A CPC (cost per click) much lower than the relevant targeted keywords in Google.

In summary, this example shows the vast reach and benefit of online press releases, even when they're distributed on a small scale. Some of the professional press release services average 10,000-20,000 distribution points these days, so keep that in mind when viewing the numbers. The bottom line is that every piece of expert advice and research available online points to the fact that press releases are a valuable practice for an online business, and done correctly, can greatly increase multiple areas of exposure. The question is, have you done a press release for your business?

Kris Themstrup | Marketing Manager | iePlexus.com | http://www.ieplexus.com/blog

The other day I was writing a sales brochure for a West Coast manufacturer. As I got to what Ill call the proof section of the brochure, I was rummaging around for testimonials. The company already had a full-blown Web site and a solid PowerPoint presentation. So I was hopeful that Id find some ready made testimonials or at least some material I could use to create some.

As it turned out, they had one case study with a couple of customer quotes. I pieced together the material to create one measly testimonial. It was less than adequate.

Well, maybe its no big deal. After all, I wrote strong copy. Why even bother with testimonials? Ill give you four good reasons.

1. Credibility

Testimonials give your company, product, or service credibility. Everyone is bombarded with advertising messages every day. Its a brutal marketplace. If you want to sell something to somebody, you stand a much better chance if you can convince them that youre credible. Testimonials are like references on a resume. Theyre the people who vouch for you.

2. Identification

Your prospects identify with your customers who are providing the testimonials. They have similar concerns, problems, hopes and desires. They commiserate. This is good. You want this in your marketing. (Sorry, but your prospects dont identify with you. Not really. Youre trying to sell them something!)

3. Proof

Proof, alone, is reason enough to gather and use testimonials. This is where your customers say, in effect, Theyre right, Mr. or Ms. Prospect. They can save you 50% ... or make you feel 18 again ... or make you enough money to retire at 50. They did it for me and Im thrilled! Testimonials notarize your marketing speak.

4. Closure

Testimonials help close the sale. Sure, they can be used throughout a marketing piece. But they definitely come in handy toward the end. Youve introduced the problem or need, your product or service, the features and benefits, and more. Then you line up your testimonials, all the customers whose heads are nodding and saying, Yep, it worked for me. Soon after, you ask for the order.

For many reasons, testimonials give your prospects the confidence they need to buy from you for the first time. And once your prospects turn into new customers, the door to repeat sales swings wide open.

(c) 2005 Neil Sagebiel

Neil Sagebiel is a former senior copywriter for a Seattle B2B ad agency and publisher of a monthly ezine, Headlines from Floyd.

Marketing is a great way to make money, but if you are focused only on yourself and how much money you are going to make, you will lose out big time. You see, the mentality that you need to have is that your job is all about them, not you. You are selling what you sell to help people, not just to make money.

To take a closer look at this concept, we will look at USP which is a unique selling proposition. If you can create your USP in one sentence, that is the best. For example, "Discover how to make one million dollars with my business absolutely free." This sentence has a great shock value and gets readers interested. If you go beyond that, you will lose your readers.

If someone were to ask what marketing it, I would tell them that it is a combination of things. The first being the mind. Marketing is the type of work that uses your brain all the time. It isn't one of those jobs you can do in your sleep.

Marketing is also action. That's right, if you don't take action, your business will not take off. It is important to be responsible to yourself and work when you know you need to.

Discovering people's problems and helping them discover them, is also a part of marketing. Most people have some kind of problem that they need a solution to. Find a niche to match their problem and help them out.

In marketing, you must be trustworthy. If you don't give what you promised you would, your business will undoubtedly fail.

Marketing is also about teamwork. No one can do marketing alone and shouldn't try. Develop a team of supporters to help you.

In order to be successful marketer, you must know a good amount about numbers. You need to know how much you need to do in order to get the results you want to get.

Lastly, being generous is a quality a marketer must have. There are far too many marketers who are actually the opposite of generous. When your prospects see you giving and wanting to help out, they will trust you even more.

Marketing is not as easy as most people think. It is a career that requires these skills above. If you don't have these skills, but want to market, you may need to think things over. You may need to adjust your approach.

Jason Pearson is an online marketing expert who wants to share his secrets with the world. To find out more...

Click Here To Discover More About Jason Pearson

How reliable is the Internet these days? Apparently, older and wiser folks only believe about half of what they read, which is a pretty smart way to look at things. Of course older and wiser folks are not High School students as one teacher from Missouri recently reminded the Online Think Tank. She mentioned to us that she could not tell us how many times she has asked students; "Who told you that?"

"The Internet told me!"

Is their answer, and the teacher just shakes her head. "Well the Internet told you did it now?" You can see the problem here. I personally have often said; Some information is not worth the Blog it was written on! Well, with that said, you can understand the serious nature of this. Indeed, I guess as a teacher, that really blows her authority out of the water? Unbelievable, yet, I do recall some rather interesting facts, that I was forced to memorize in school and later found out it was all BS. All sorts of stuff, so, there's that aspect too. I did notice some Internet Intellectuals recently talking about "the revenge of the experts" who are slowly over taking the massive flow of content out there.

So, maybe this negative trend we see is in fact, righting itself. The Internet is the greatest communication device ever created in the history of mankind, yet it is used by humans and thus, abused. As students cheat on tests, Governors cheat on their wives and sports heroes cheat with drug enhancement, it was bound to happen. We have a lapse of ethics, morals, and most of that yes, we should be blaming the parents. Okay and the village too, but it takes both to raise a child.

Learn more about the revenge of the experts:

http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2811

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance Winslow's Bio

The simple process of putting your ad.

1: Go to craigslist.org

2: Click on a state from the list of us states (EX: ALABAMA)

3: Choose a city (EX: AUBURN)

4: Click on "Post to classifieds" on the top left

5: Click on "Services Offered"

6: Click on "Creative Services"

7: For the "Posting Title" always put a different title for each different ad you place. EX: "==>Logo Design Alabama"

8: Put your ad text in: "Posting Description"

9: Always use a different ad text each time you post

10: put your email address 2 times where it says: "your email address"

11: Click "Continue" at the bottom

12: Go to the bottom of the page and enter the code in the picture and click on continue

13: on the next page click on: "ACCEPT terms of use"

14: Go to your email and click on the message from craigslist( will say: post/edit/delete.....)

14: open the email

15: click on the blue link

16: if a message pops up saying "this page may contain secure and nonsecure items" just click YES

17: You will see: Publish Edit Delete

18: Click on "Publish"

19: if a message pops up saying "this page may contain secure and nonsecure items" just click YES

Simply repeat theses steps for each ad you place.

You can also use pictures to display your ads, if you have a website, simply use your website to host the ad and paste the html picture in the craigslist Posting.
The whole point of craigslist is for local people to find you so don't try posting in other countries! It just won't work!

You can also use craigslist as an optimization tool, it will not help your website increase rankings but if you optimize the content of your ad and use the proper text and keywords, people searching on the net may find your ad and click on the link to your website.

Concept Media Designs is a specialist in Getting your website found in the natural results of Search Engines. For more information visit: http://www.conceptmediadesigns.com/internet_marketing.html for more details.

To market successfully you must incorporate the Internet into your business plan, but be sure to follow these 9 tips for success on the net:

1 Get Sticky

Your site is sticky if it keeps visitors looking and returning to your site. A good way to do this is to have up to date relevant information or heroin content.

2 Heroin Content

Heroin content is what web usability guru Vincent Flanders calls the information that people would crawl through a sewer for. Heroin is the most addictive drug on the planet so people will do anything for another fix. What does your website provide visitors that they just gotta have?

3 Customize

The unique quality of the internet is the ability to interact and customize content. Customized content keeps them coming back for more. Keep the connection alive by following up with useful information and news.

4 Start Your Engines

Customers that dont know you will likely find you through a search engine. The trick is getting the search engines to find you first. Invest in good search engine software, or pay someone who knows how it works.

5 Provide Answers

People use search engines to find solutions to their problems. Is your site about solving your customers headaches? Most sites are self centered. Make yours customer centered by providing answers to their questions.

6 Hard Sell Vs Soft Sell

Build relationships by providing value before the sale. When it comes time to purchase, you already have an established relationship. Ask yourself what you can do for your customer rather than what your customer can do for you.

7 Navigate Straight

Dont create a million dollar website with ten cent navigation. Simple easy to follow navigation is far more effective than nonsensical animated graphics. Think Google!

8 Be Professional

Your site reflects your work ethic and the type of service you are likely to provide your customers. Put some time, effort and money into your site to show you are top notch.

9 Dont Be Professional

People are looking for an original and authentic voice, not the same boiler plate information. Nobody likes stiff and snobby people and they wont like their websites either. Take advantage of the rare opportunity when someone reads your content to make a real personal connection.

Michael Daehn is the founder of marketingenious consulting and author of the book The Seven Keys to Marketing Genius: The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Marketing IQ available at http://www.sevenkeysmarketing.com and http://www.borders.com

Visit his website at http://www.marketingenious.com