SEOContent Queen

Keep Marketing People!

Fri, 03 May 2013 16:03:46 -0700

Keep Marketing People!

I came across Active Mail when I found out the former President...

Thu, 10 May 2012 18:49:00 -0700

I came across Active Mail when I found out the former President of Oversee.net (a company I once worked for) is now the CEO of Active Path. I really like the Active Mail system as it is truly the new way of checking your email. We shouldn’t have to leave our inboxes for EVERY PIECE OF DIGITAL MAIL. Active Mail keeps busy people like me from wasting my time in other browsers. It may even be the eProcrastinator’s email system of choice. The program is still in Beta but the download is now FREE. Check it out!

Cover It Live: Professional Live Blogging Platform

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:55:22 -0800

Ready for the latest in online blogging technology? I’m so excited to be a fresh new signee of Cover It Live. CIL is used by big industry media organizations for the likes of ESPN and Yahoo and the BBC to share content with their audience in live chat form. From their interface you submit content to your online viewers who wait for your every message whether it be in video, image or mp3 file form. You can submit poll questions from scratch or send them as a saved link in your database storage. I think this is a great interaction between publishing and live media. Not everyone is equipped with the talent for video blogging but many writers would like instant feedback and the kind of quick response that is usually garnered from video blogs. Cover It Live is that perfect solution. The basic package covers a generous 5,000 users/month for free but it doesn’t have all the add-ons that make the blog profitable like subscription fees, ad support or their fully integrated partnership tools with Demand Media.

Canvas Pop + Instagram : Mobile Media Art

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:06:05 -0800

The awesomely social media mobile application Instagram has made almost instant success among the young and camera phone pic friendly crowd. I also use Instagram but I haven’t given it much attention lately. Instagram allows you to take your regular shoddy phone pics and turn them into stylized works of mobile phone art. You can then share these photos with your Instagram friends, of which you should easily have plenty since Instagram truly is the people’s choice these days. Anyway, Instagram hasn’t even reached the peak of its popularity and already they’ve created a great partnership with an online picture canvassing company.

Now Instagrammers can pay about $30 to have their phone pics turned into canvas art. The quality is just as great in print not missing in clarity at all. You can get started with creating your prints by visiting the canvas pop shop here.

Want More Online Marketing Tips? Try:

Marketing For Service Industries: 1 SEOtip You Will Steal

SEOContentQueen lives and breathes Marketing and Los Angeles smog. She wouldn’t have it any other way. She also loves mentions @SEOContentQueen.

Using Boomerang App for Link Building Prospects

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:53:23 -0800

Earlier today SEOBook shared a post on a Google Application that will do wonders for keeping up with link building prospects. Boomerang fits nicely on your Google toolbar and you can install it here. When composing a message you can select the “Send Later” boomerang tab to schedule when you want that link building proposal/email to go out. This is super helpful for SEO’s who work during hours that aren’t conducive to getting a response. With high traffic or high page rank bloggers link proposals are a dime a dozen and those often get mixed up with other promotional or spammy emails. You increase your chances of getting a fast next workday response if you schedule your email to go out say, 8am the following day.

The best part about this plugin is its “Boomerang-Like” quality. By selecting the boomerang box you can have your message returned to you if it gets no reply from your prospect. It’s like a virtual return-to-sender! This feature is golden considering any more than 5 emails going out at a time is enough for you to forget about the ones who have not replied to you in the midst of those who actually want a response or post from you. You can have your messaged boomeranged by the hour, day, week and month or even a specific timestamp.

This plugin is also great for small business professionals and salesman who manage large lead projects on their own.

SEOContentQueen lives and markets in Los Angeles. Follow her friendly tweets @SEOContentQueen.

Evernote: Desktop Filing and Idea Organizing Software

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:15:00 -0800

Evernote has just launched their 2 iPhone applications “Hello” and “Stitch”. These are are really cool additions to their desktop and mobile file capturing system.

I stumbled across it while looking for desktop filing and organization software. I’m a newbie user but so far I love how beautiful and easy this program makes projects for me. Sticking documents in a regular file folder doesn’t work when you still have to sift through dozens of files. With Evernote I can SEE the files that are being put away as depicted below.

You can also search for each file by keyword and tagging. Don’t worry if you don’t have time to go in and tag all your files yourself. Evernote can call up the text within any of your documents much like Google mail so even if you forgot to properly label, you should be able to find your file. You can use Evernote from your mobile phone to take snapshots of business cards and other images. Here’s the kicker as quoted in my Evernote startup message:

“Evernote automatically makes text in your snapshots searchable!”

I plan on using it to organize my thoughts while I’m planning for trips, projects and design drafts. You’ve gotta check it out for yourself!

What To Buy Your Queen (of content ; ) for Xmas!

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:17:25 -0800

Well, duhhh we like our writing and if you’re girl is a classic beauty like moiii, she’ll want new pen and paper. Don’t underestimate this fellas. There is nothing like receiving fresh sheets of clean white paper and a shiny pen filled with dripping wet ink!

This gorgeous Louis Vuitton Notebook is currently on my hit list! I love Louis Vuitton products because there is no more of such a simplistic and iconic couture line of accessories. Besides if you have to write great content, you might as well write in style. I don’t think LV currently sells this but you might be able to find indie sellers of the notebook if you search for it.

Spiral Notebook (clipped to polyvore.com)

I decided to add this one in for kicks. I found a pen truly fit for a queen. The limited edition Boheme Papillon fountain pen retails for $230,410. Sheesh. That’s like high end jewelry with ink!

But here’s the heavy duty I use. An ATX Basalt Black Selectip Rolling Ball Pen. It’s only $55- 70 depending on if you catch it on sale. It’s just as beautiful in black and chrome and comes with a lifetime mechanical guarantee and it’s own unique gel ink formula.

Enjoy your holiday season and don’t forget to splurge on yourselves!

Find my face on Twitter. I’m very friendly! @SEOContentQueen

Mexican Bloggers Murdered Over Posts

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:40:02 -0800

Mexican Bloggers Murdered Over Posts

Marketing for Service Industries: 1 #SEOtip you will steal.

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:05:00 -0700

If you’re in the service industry and are looking for new ways to gain marketing leverage you will love this post. So, lately I’ve been on a roll with giving out all these money saving marketing tips. Must be the inner frugalista in me. This one actually came from working with one my clients so it has been proven, tested and is a significant winner.

If you provide a professional service and would like more clients you should definitely consider putting up an ad on Craigslist.org. I LOVE Craigslist and it has gotten me everything from a roommate to antique furniture and cars. But it also has sections on the site for “professional services”. After crafting a great craigslist ad my client was able to reap the benefits of a 12% increase in sales within one month! That may not be a lot but it sure is pretty significant. The reason Craigslist ads work so well is because they actually rank very well on Google’s SERP. Think about it, Craigslist is a cesspool for user generated content. Why wouldn’t Google love anything from ol’ Craig? There are only a few things you need to do to make sure that your post is optimized and ready for debut:

1. Generate a keyword list of about 100-150 related words and phrases. (yes, that many is necessary) The great thing about it is that Craigslist actually allows you to put these keywords in the bottom of your post for publish.)

2. Use an SEO title and body of content. So if you are a plumber:

“Certified Plumber in Seattle”

3. Use PICTURES. Trust me, they don’t have to be professionally done. Simple candids will do as long as they exhibit good work. Ads without pictures are almost 80% less likely to get a call.

4. NO ADS. Do not use this opportunity to write an ad filled post. You can certainly offer your price (and I highly suggest it) but please, please don’t waste this on: “$15 Facial!!!” “Get it while it lasts!!!” Craigslisters will pass you by. Remember this is a community site so people expect to hear from real people who have honest intentions on providing good work.

5. Reconsider your pricing. Craigslist is for the customer who needs a deal. They have great potential to become repeat customers once they’ve tried you out but you don’t want to scare them away with your non-discounted peak holiday pricing. Don’t work for free but certainly a small break on your price is worth repeat sales.

Alright happy Posting!

My Mailing List Buying Alternative: Only in Theory or Golden Idea?

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:05:38 -0700

So yesterday I sat thinking about new ways to market a client working in home services. I’ve decided - and please spare me you stones- to use direct marketing mailing lists as a part of our overall marketing strategy. I know my client, although eager to invest in marketing (God, I love those clients) is a bit strapped for cash (Damn, I hate when that happens). Immediately my mind goes into resourceful mode, thinking up ways to cut marketing cost corners. So for fun, I came up with the following plan. Only I’m not so sure it will work. Lol. What do you think?

MY PLAN

1. Instead of buying mailing lists, I’ll use Google Maps.

2. I’ll take one of my client’s customer’s address as a starting place.

3. I’ll enter the address in Google maps and find other homes in a 5 mile radius.

4. I’ll collect all possible addresses in a spreadsheet to use for the mailers.

5. I’ll continue doing steps 1-4 until I’ve created one hefty mailing list.

That should work……right?

Well, don’t judge me. You never know what you’ll come up with when you need to save a buck.

*SEOContentQueen in no way admits to actually spamming or endorses the act of spamming. Seek the guidance of your local legal system regarding spam laws. ; )

Sorry I’ve been away. New job. Marketing Manager. North...

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:43:53 -0700

Sorry I’ve been away. New job. Marketing Manager. North Hollywood. But I’m back. Tell em Lionel….

SEOContent Queen- Best Video Email Service: I'm in Love!

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:41:40 -0700

Today I was in a mad frenzy looking for a flash capture to send video emails to my associates for a new site I’m developing. I’m really excited about vlogs and video media and I assure you it is the way of the immediate future. People want information faster and video is an excellent way of getting it out. Unfortunately, the programs for getting things like Youtube and Vimeo content from the web are scarce. So today I asked my friends at MadMimi, a very affordable service and my personal email list management and sender of choice, if they had any ideas.

I was told that Jing was just what I needed. Jing allows you to take screenshots and make videos of whatever you see on your computer screen. You simply download the free tagger much like the stumbleupon icon, and select the tagger whenever you come across a page you want to capture. It then stores the content for you to send via email, blog, instant message or social media site. Unlike a screenshot Jing allows you to minimize and crop which section of your screen you want to capture! No more sending these images to Paint to be cropped before sending. The best part is that Jing is free. You can send video for only $14.95/YEAR!

#SEOtips Auto Ping Your Blog Posts

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:25:00 -0700

It’s hard keeping up with all your content. At Auto-Ping.com you can notify the search engines, blogs and rss directories that you’ve created new content. The benefits of having free faster search indexing and increased visibility is priceless.

To Auto-Ping all you have to do is copy the html code and paste it into your new blog post or website. Once you click on the Auto Ping symbol you are directed to the Auto Ping site (a project by MyPageRank.net) where you can see your post being pinged to the major directories and search engines. Then you can refer to the previous days post or the last pinged post to copy the code again for your latest post.

You can even customize the colors to blend in nicely with your blog like mine below:

pixelbecher: The future of loyalty is social

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:30:03 -0700

pixelbecher:

The future of loyalty is social

SimilarSites: Finding Niche and Competing Websites

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:45:00 -0700

Similar Sites is a subsidiary of Similar Group where the motto is “search is good, but finding is better!” SimilarSites.com is a great SEO resource for finding those sites that are as closely related to the content of your own site. Sometimes finding similar websites isn’t so easy. At Similar Sites instead of searching by keyword which sometimes brings up spammy or link farmed results, you search by url. Then the site offers several, sometimes dozens of sites, ranked by percentage which are similar to your url. While you can find similar information on Google Webmaster or Adwords search tools, I like the user generated results of Similar Sites. The site also has a section for reviews and top sites. After viewing one of the listed sites you may rate the selection by 5 stars, helping the next person who comes along with the same query. You can even view Tweets and Facebook posts by othere users regarding the site in your query.

Take a look at this screenshot of my query for “seomoz.org” :

Tweeting and Posting: The Joint is Laced

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:02:00 -0700

Ahhh yes, you’re in a cozy basement room with your friends. The home stereo plays the tunes of Hendrix from your favorite rock station. No one moves, no one speaks but somehow everyone is communicating. It’s because you’re all baked and wondering how the three of you that originally entered has turned into six double-headed creatures. Then it hits you. The joint was laced. What was it laced with? Who knows, but it was good. How the hell were you fooled about the contents? Your best friend said something quick and clever. He sold you on a promise of pure satisfaction. But you’re not upset. Noo, it was all harmless pleasure. That’s exactly how we successfully share information on social media sites.

When we’re tweeting and posting we want to gain a lead, or subscriber or just a new fan. That means sharing things that aren’t always directly related to our goal. Sometimes we just want to share a video, an image or an article. But in order to get that click through we’ve got to lace our message with super quick and engaging content; content that stands out among the crowd of other messages on Facebook news feeds and tweets, but also remains relevant to your original goal. So how does one “lace” their social media message? By finding a single common thread and blowing up its connection with your desired audience. For example:

Here’s a pretty random but fun photo I wanted to share with my community (thanks Omgplace :) :

First I defined a connection with my photo, in this case, inexpensive marketing.

Second I tailored a tweet or post that was engaging and exaggerated it’s usefulness to my friends and followers.

My Tweet or Post:

“I’ve found the best and cheapest developer for hire! If you need a programmer you can check him out here.”

Lastly… I just wait for the clicks and comments.

Get Your Facebook Parking Space

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:43:00 -0700

You know you need to give your Online Marketing Manager a raise when….

they come up with an awesomely fabulous idea for Marketing your small business by playing on the Social Media craze. That’s exactly what Christiane Peschen of Belgian furniture store, Heylen did for her customers. The catch was that the three Facebook parking spaces which are positioned so comfortably near the furniture store’s door are only reserved for Facebook fans! Neato! I love the idea and I love that it came from another innovative woman. *ROARRR*

Beyond the fact that this is a great incentive to become a fan. This idea has reached viral capacity as bloggers all over the world are now talking about it.

Good Job Christiane….I must add you on Twitter.

Looking for someone to manage your content? Check out my site at SEOContentQueen.com

Register for the International Freelancer’s Day Online...

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:38:54 -0700

I hear my friend “James Chartrand” will be making ~~her~~ his presentation tomorrow.

Using Online Marketing for Business Reputation - Netflix

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:07:00 -0700

Today I got an email from Netflix and boy was it a surprise. If you’ll recall, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings put himself and the company in a huge debacle over some less than forthright practices. Unbeknownst to millions of customers, Netflix underhandedly passed off a new bill with separate charges for it’s delivery dvd service which had originally been apart of a monthly package. Needless to say people weren’t too thrilled with the surprise billing statement. I’m sure Netflix customer service reps received mp shortage of calls for that entire month following the new bill.

I’ve pasted parts of the email apology for you to read over because I think this is a great time to discuss damage control. I really enjoyed reading Reed Hasting’s letter and I find it to be a great case study for a properly constructed online business apology letter. He definitely had some professional help with this and I decided to break down the strengths of his apology letter.

1. Keep It Personal

Reed starts his letter addressing the person it is sent to and not to “Netflix Customers” or some other all encompassing group name. This letter is personable because Reed understands that his business has hurt individuals not a nation of customers.

Reed writes:

Dear Cassady,

I messed up. I owe you an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing.

2. Address the Problem and Take Responsibility Where It is Due

Reed goes on to simply state the problem we all know about without dwelling on it too much. He goes in detail about the company’s reasoning and how much the decision, although a bit faulty, was made with the customer in mind.

“For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn’t make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the right thing to do.”

3. Remind them of Why They Love You

If your apology letter only contains a bunch of boo-hoo “I’m sorry’s” you will only remind your customers of how upset they were about their service to begin with. You have to remind them of why they became a customer in the first place. Trust me, in times like these customers want to know why they should remain a customer.

“Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service.”

4. Introduce A New Solution

What I like about Reed’s letter is that it’s solution comes in the form of almost a new product or feature. He let’s his customers know that the change will come with a gift.

“So here is what we are doing and why…..

One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements will follow.”

5. Put Your Business Apology in a Blog or Vlog & Allow Comments

This is just really going the extra mile. Sending one letter personally via email and another in open public form allows you to get feedback via comments about how the letter was received. It also allows the media *ahem* to link back to you. Reed’s video is just the icing to the cake. While I don’t think this was necessary for his relatively small mistake, a bigger boo-boo by a larger company might need to get in front of the camera. Seeing the CEO’s face when apologizing shows great humility and earnestness.

“Respectfully yours,

-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix

p.s. I have a slightly longer explanation along with a video posted on our blog, where you can also post comments.”

Even though you may not think you have big budgets like Netflix to invest in maintaining your online business reputation, you have to keep in mind that the online ad space is one of the few places in which all businesses are equal.

Looking for someone to manage your content or campaign? Check out my business site at http://www.seocontentqueen.com

I told you SEO was Queen.....Meet "James Chartrand"

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:19:12 -0700

I told you SEO was Queen.....Meet "James Chartrand"