Epicenter Network Blog

Listing your web site or blog on online directories is an easy way to build traffic and page ranking, provide great links and even help with saturation. While some directories charge a listing fee, the majority of them are free and only take a few minutes to complete a submission.

Here is my list of the top 10 directories to get listed on.

1. Yahoo
This is one of best-known directories out there and will cost you $299 to get started and an additional $299 every year to stay listed. Pricey, yes, but you will get some good back links and their directory listings tend to get displayed in search results.

2. Squidoo.com
I like this site because it is really good for search engine results saturation. You can publish a “lens” and share your brand, product or company with others for free. Click here for a good explanation of its benefits and functionality.

3. DMOZ.org
This one has been around for a while and is held in high esteem with Google and other major search engines. Getting listed here is free but approval is pretty difficult and takes a long time, if it happens at all.

4. BOTW.org
Best of the Web has been around since 1994 and costs $10/month for the local listing and $99/year to be in the main listing. I’ve heard that their listing pages usually have a page rank of four.

5. MerchantCircle.com
You can get listed on this one for free and they tend to rank near the top on most related search queries.

6. JoeAnt.com
This site has themed categories and is very picky about who they let list for free. If you don’t want to wait around, just spend $40 for an expedited review.

7. Clickey.com
Super simple site that offers free listing.

8. YellowPages.com
YellowPages is another well-known directory and offers free listing. This is good primarily for companies that are looking to target a local crowd, but will also generate some nice results saturation otherwise.

9. Best of the Web Blogs
As the name suggestions, this is for blog listing – and it’s free. They are picky about who they accept, but getting listed here will really help bring in some additional traffic.

10. Affbuzz
Gotta give a shout out to Affbuzz, where this blog is currently listed. Most blogs on there are from affiliates or CPA/ad networks.

Achieving success online comes from hard work and patience and through building and maintaining positive relationships. This isn’t much different than relationships in the real world – except for the fact that monogamy in the online sector is highly discouraged.

Initially, you must put yourself out on the market to attract online users with your shared interest, and then once you get them, you’ve got to keep them interested. The work doesn’t stop after the chase; it actually is just the beginning. This is where link love comes into play.

The reciprocal sharing of links is vital for all online relationships, as it displays a level of commitment, value and trust in each other’s content. This sharing of links builds somewhat of a neighborhood and creates an expanded web of knowledge within your content area.

However, just like in the real world, rejection can occur. How do you avoid linking to someone who doesn’t link back? Or if they do link back, how can you be sure that you have found lasting link love?

First, always keep in mind that you must give before you can receive. Besides just linking to your own content, start to branch out and link to external content. This will start to build your web of links and other users will start to notice you, check out what you have to offer, and may link back to your site.

Once these links are made, you must continue placing time and effort into maintaining the relationship and keeping things fresh. You can’t just call occasionally – some wining and dining must be involved. Comment on their newest blog post, keep up with their articles and give credit where credit is deserved.

But link love isn’t all about free love – remember to set your standards. If the content doesn’t match your style or doesn’t reflect the message you are trying to portray, don’t link to them. Your only standards in dating shouldn’t be that the person has a pulse, so you shouldn’t link to another site just because they are in your content niche.

And lastly, be sure to play the field. Don’t limit yourself to exclusively linking to one site. Spread the link love to lots of different sites and improve your traffic and visibility.

Perhaps I’m a little bias when saying this, but content is one of the most important – dare I say the most important – component for an agency or individual marketer’s success. It’s what draws a visitor in, keeps them engaged and ultimately causes them to react in one way or another.

A copywriter does more than just translate a company’s product into words; they often are a key part of brainstorming, coming up with new ideas and contributing to the overall creative process.

So how good is your site’s content? For those of you that have been blessed with a strong left and right sided brain, you may not need to hire an outside copywriter, as you can create content just fine. However, if you don’t have the strongest grasp on grammar or have a difficult time writing compelling content, you may want to outsource.

One of my favorite sites for finding freelance writers is Peter Shankman’s helpareporter.com. I have used this site in the past to find guest bloggers, PR freelancers, sources for articles and other content writers. It’s free, fast and really one of the best places to find a content writer.

Even if you are a good writer yourself, you may want to consider having guest bloggers or freelancing some of your content projects just to get a fresh take on things. You definitely want to stick with the same tone and goal of your site, but adding fresh content and new ideas can help re-engage people and attract new visitors.

Here is a list of free online tutorials for content writing.

• Pandecta.com
• Sherus.com
• Copyblogger.com

Here is an exciting announcement for small businesses and non–profits: free webinars focused around technology tips and techniques to help increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your organizations. The webinars will be held on the second Wednesday of every month starting tomorrow and ending in July, starting at noon EST.

These webinars are part of the Talking Tech series sponsored by FormSpring and will feature special speakers from a handful of different companies. Each session is composed of three 15 minute webinars and a Q&A session.

The first speaker for tomorrow’s webinar is Pat East, president and CEO from Hanapin Marketing. He will be talking about how to make SEO and PPC strategies work for businesses and organizations with different needs and objectives.

Also in tomorrow’s session, you will hear presenters from Cantaloupe talking about basic video marketing techniques and FormSpring will discuss online data collection methods.

Click here to register.

Zephrin Lasker, you are a man after my own heart. Explaining the relationship between branding and ROI in scientific terms and comparing them to the symbiotic relationship of the shrimp and the goby fish – love it.

Nerdy, yes. However, this is the simple, straight talk that people need and want to hear. Plus, it reinforces the benefits of blending branding and ROI objectives.

Essentially, he explains that remarketing allows for branding and ROI campaigns to come together in a mutually beneficial way. Advertisers are given consent to contact the consumer through a targeted advertisement, further engage them and keep them engaged.

Lasker also mentions a 2008 study that revealed in-house lists were the most effective medium for generating the most returns on market investment.

Here are some examples of successful remarketing campaigns:

• JetBlue Twitter forum
• Obama’s presidential email campaign
• The Dell community site
• The Coca-Cola rewards program

Want to make the most of your person in-house lists? Here are two suggestions.

1. Grow your in-house list in a cost effective manner. What is cost effective? Try sticking to CPC and CPL pricing models. This allows you to pay for very specific consumer interactions, not for clicks and impressions that may not lead to a sale.

2. Devote more attention to backend CRM efforts. You need to anticipate your customer’s needs and make their time spent on your site well spent and enjoyable. This will retain your customer base, increase customer loyalty and keep you competitive.

If you are still grasping at this idea, think about the relationship between the shrimp and goby fish. The shrimp digs a hole in the sand and shares it with the goby. In return, the goby helps warn the blind shrimp about approaching predators. Brand yourself and find your niche market, then use remarketing strategies and grow your in-house lists to maintain a healthy ROI.

Don’t worry about getting behind your refrigerator or moving the furniture around, that is not the type of cleaning I’m talking about. This is spring cleaning for your marketing strategies and campaigns.

Now is a good time to stop and take a look at what you’ve done so far this year, what has and hasn’t worked and plan your next moves. Before you start cleaning things out and changing strategies, take a look at your past programs and strategies and their outcomes. Take note of all the things that worked and also how your audience has changed. Consider the current market trends and how your past programs can be incorporated into your current plan.

This is also a good time to reflect on changes in your customer behavior and reconnect with them. How are they responding to your newsletters? Review your content and make sure that you are sending engaging material and the right value message. You may also want to try putting a survey on your site to get a better idea of what they are looking for and how you can make your site more valuable to them.

Which leads into the next area to clean up – your web site. How recently was your content updated; is this something you do on a regular basis? Also make sure that your messaging is aligned with company branding strategies and meets your audience’s needs and fulfills their needs and keeps them coming back.

How functional and user-friendly is your web site? Try to make the purchasing path as fluid as possible and run through how easy or difficult it is to navigate your site. Take a look at your layout and design – are there any obvious areas for improvement? This may be a good time to revamp it a bit or add some new graphics.

In addition to “cleaning” out your web site and reconnecting with customers, you may also want to consider adding some new marketing channels to your strategy, such as social networking or blogging. This is a great way to stay in touch with current customers, attract new customers and help to further brand your company or product.

Once you have sorted through your strategies, customers and websites, catch up on the latest online marketing trends and take a stab at something new. This is also a good time to make adjustments to your budgeting and look for places to cut back on spending or where to put more money.

Once your marketing strategies have been reorganized, you may want to take a look at your work space and see what clutter you can remove from there as well.

For those of you who consider themselves to be social media “experts” and who love socializing online more than human interaction, brace yourself for what I am about to say. Social media is not a good place for advertising. Some may even go as far as saying that it is the worst medium for advertising.

I am not one of those people. However, I do agree that your product is not going to start flying off the shelves by simply Twittering about how it holds 12 times its weight in water, is machine washable and is made in Germany (this of course is the ShamWow! And it is pretty great).

Social networks were created as a place for people to connect online and share ideas, resources and pictures of their weekends. People don’t log in to their accounts for shopping, so advertisements either have to be extremely convincing or be targeted toward a very specific audience. This isn’t to say that Facebook and MySpace ads are not effective, because many online marketers are successful at driving revenue from them.

Jason Calacanis, CEO at Mahalo, believes that advertising through social media may not work. He compares sites like Facebook to online parties and during parties people don’t pay attention to advertising. The real way to succeed, he says, is through search.

In pay-per-click ads the customer basically comes to you and is actively seeking information. This raises your likeliness of a conversion since they already have an interest even before you pitch your product to them.

Calacanis says Twitter should be considered a one-on-one direct marketing tool and called it the new Super Bowl commercial. I agree with his point and would go on to say that Twitter, and similar sites, are also great for studying your audience and collecting data. You can tap into what your consumer is interested in, what they are unhappy about and maybe even figure out how to get them to buy your product.

If you feel differently about this and successfully advertise and convert through social media sites, I want to hear from you.

This morning I came across a study conducted by Bazaarvoice and richrelevance that looked at the behavior of today’s online shopper. The take away points were that 48% of online shoppers said they will spend less this year and those that will be making purchases will not be making them hastily.

What does this mean for the online marketer? It’s time to turn on the charm, play up the product, add some reviews, recommendations and sweeten the deals.

The study also shows that consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a site that provides that with content tools connecting them to the opinions and behaviors of other shoppers. This may be because they are looking for more validation in their purchase and if Joe from Virginia says he can’t remember life before he bought his Snuggie, then maybe you can’t live without one either.

I think a good example of this can be seen at one of my favorite shopping sites, SteepandCheap.com. This site promotes one product at a time at a discounted price and offers the deal until stock runs out. Under the image of the product there is a description and product features section and below that a review section. I tend to trust reviews more than product descriptions, as these are testimonials from people who have actually used the product outdoors and comment on the comfort and functionality.

Not surprisingly, the study also said that online shoppers cutting back the most in the automotive, travel and consumer electronics sector – the big ticket items. They are also visiting 3 sites or more to compare prices before making their purchase.

To keep the consumer on your site and get them through your purchasing path, there are a few things you can do. The first is to provide compelling content for your product. The content needs to connect them to the product and build their confidence in making the purchase. Then provide them with previous customer reviews, ratings and testimonials to the products quality.

Another suggestion is to recommend additional products based on the consumer’s purchasing behavior and on other consumer’s behavior. This is a great up-selling technique and you’d be surprised how much more likely people are to buy things when they see how many other people are.

The average online web user can be a bit ADD and has a short attention span when it comes to finding information online. When a visitor enters your website, you have only a matter of seconds to grab their attention and provide them with the information they are looking for. This is when video comes in handy.

Would you rather read a 500 word product description or watch a 15 second video of user testimonials and a visual display of the product itself? Personally, I’d opt for the video. And if it’s true that actions speak louder than words, then the power of video wins in this situation.

I’ve read that today’s “younger crowd” – ages 18 through 24 – are spending a greater amount of their time online watching videos and television shows, getting their news and doing some shopping. This is the same demographic that bookmarks sites like YouTube, Hulu, MySpace and Facebook. They aren’t the only demographic turning to video, as the more mature crowd is tuning in too.

So how do you cash in on this trend? Start making or posting videos to your site, blog, company profile/group page or social network. If you are selling a product, replace a lengthy description or testament to its quality with a video that shows someone actually using it.

The best part is that making the actual video is the easiest step. Ever seen those new PC commercials with the little kids making videos? If they can do it, so can you. There are software programs you can purchase or you can pay someone to make it for you. Once the video is created, you can start posting on YouTube and creating your own channel or try MetaCafe.

I found this video by Michael Jantze on how to get featured on YouTube.

A simple guideline to a video marketing approach is outlined here by Michael Pick:

1. Get your video seen – make it visible and eye-catching on your landing page
2. Let them know it’s a video, a short video
3. Make your video “zing” – Keep it short, sweet and catchy
Get a good soundtrack going, keep it fast paced and give them something cool to look at

Want more traffic to your site? Start a blog. Google loves blogs and by adding one to your site you can dramatically increase your page rankings and you earnings.

If you have a well established site that is well-linked and maintained, adding a blog can really help with your SEO and search result rankings. A well-linked site is crawled often by Google, so make sure to keep adding new content to keep the rankings high.

Blogs are also another great way to bring in additional traffic. Be sure to provide your visitors with the option to subscribe to your blog and receive feeds. You should also place sharing tools on each page so that you can benefit from social networking and get your name out there faster.

When you set up your blog, opt to automatically have trackback links posted. This leaves somewhat of a comment on the external blog you are referencing and lets their readers, and author, know that you mentioned them in your post. This is especially helpful if you link to a popular blog, as many of their readers will see your link and visit your blog.

If you really want to get into blogging and drive up your traffic even more, it is helpful to join a few social networks and become active in your niche’s blogosphere by leaving comments and interacting with other bloggers. Blogs and social networking work really well together and essentially build your online presence and add a human element to your site.

These are just a couple ideas for increasing site and blog traffic, but I know there are many more. If you care to share your tips on driving blog related traffic, I’d love to hear from you!