Month: December 2011

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New Levels for Blog Writing and Specialty Blogging

With seven talented writers working for us, we’ve blogged for a wide variety of business sectors. Based on client needs, we’ve developed some new programs that cater to difficult to blog for client needs.

Here are just a few of the new blog programs in specialty areas we’ve developed:

  1. Diamond Level by Sue – $50 per post
    Diamond Level blog posts are written exclusively by our most experienced  blogger, Sue Guirl, a graduate from the University of Missouri’s School of  Journalism. As a professional journalist, Sue has a unique style of writing  that is both informative and engaging. She knows how to craft a blog post,  turn a phrase, and paint a picture with her words that provides for an exceptionally  fine level of writing. With many of our client’s asking for her by name, Sue  is our most popular writer. Due to the mastery of her craft, Sue writes exclusively  at the Diamond and Platinum Levels for blogging. She also writes website content and feature  articles for web and print publications.
  2. Platinum Level by Sue – $60 per post
    The Platinum Level is priced to provide a  longer word count than the Diamond Level blog post and is recommended for more difficult topics or those that need more research time by our writer.Platinum Level blog posts are  written exclusively by our most experienced blogger, Sue Guirl, a graduate from  the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. Sue has a very unique  client-pleasing style of writing that is both informative and engaging. She  knows how to turn a phrase and research a topic that provides for an  exceptionally fine level of writing. Sue is by far our most popular writer. As  she is in such demand, Sue writes exclusively at the Diamond and Platinum  Levels for blogging. She also writes website content and feature articles for  web and print publications. She also writes website content and feature  articles for web and print publications.
  3. Medical Practice Blogging – $40 per post
    Medical  Practice blog posts are written by only our most experienced and educated  bloggers. Catering to doctors, dentists, and plastic surgeons, our medical blog  writers write about your specific services in an engaging, informative style. With this blogging level you have one writer for the life of your blog project with us. This  allows our writer to develop strong experience in your topics, lean the style  of writing you like, and helps them to become knowledgeable on your topics  allowing for more effective writing. As writing for your specialty requires  more time to research and write, our preferred frequency and lowest pricing is for  writing three days a week. We can write less frequently but at a slightly  higher writing rate.
  4. Bed Bug & Pest Control Blogging by Rhonda – $40  per post
    Bed bug and pest control blogging is done exclusively by Rhonda Crehan, a  seasoned pest control writing expert. Rhonda has over four years of writing  experience in the pest control industry. She has strong pest control experience  writing and has over two years of specialized in writing about bed bug control,  prevention, identification, bed bug dogs, and pending bed bug legislation.  She is extremely interested and knowledgeable about the pest control industry  and this interest and passion shows in her well written blog posts for clients.

You can read samples of blogs at these new levels on our specialty blog services page.

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Afraid to Test AdWords Try Google AdWords Express

Some clients may be selling a service or product that may not be a wonderful match for Google AdWords. There’s a great way to test if AdWords is right for you before taking the big plunge in regards to set up fees and click charges.

First, this is why AdWords may seem not be right for your business:

  1. Your products or services are priced higher than other competitors in your market. For example, you may only sell products bundled into a four pack and your competitors will sell singles. This makes your superior product, seem more costly than the competition.
  2. Your service is unique but costs more to buy due to your expertise. Others who do not have your longevity in the industry may be selling what seems to the consumer the same service but at half the price.
  3. You are offering coupon codes to discount your products and promote them widely on the Web, but when a consumer reviews your product (which they can buy elsewhere) head to head on the Web without using the discount your product and shipping may be higher.

Second, this is how you can test AdWords for your business with minimal set up expense:

  • Set up a Google Places account or claim your listing. Then use AdWords Express within the control panel to show ads in up to a 50 mile radius to test the waters with your AdWords program.
  • Although this is a local test and not a national test, for just a few minutes in set up, and no keyword entry, you can try out Google AdWords to check the viability of your product or services on Google AdWords.
  • When you set up a Google AdWords Express account, Google will set your cost per click, create a simple keyword list and even create your ad text.

Third, when should you consider the test successful?

  1. If your traffic and phone call level have improved from this limited scope test, it may be time to consider a full Google AdWords program. I recommend moving to this new level only if you have the budget to truly test a four to six month period at an ad spend of $500 to $2,000 for a 30 day period.
  2. If you got lots of clicks and no sales or phone calls, I would recommend that you review your position in the market to one see how you can clearly differentiate yourself from low price competition, re-align selling policies and prices to be more competitive in the consumer’s eyes, and evaluate if there may be alternative ways to cost efficiently promote your products and services other than Google AdWords.

If you are looking to move into a three or four month AdWords evaluation program after testing the waters, we’d be a good match for your needs. With a strong focus on sales and lead conversions, our service and honest advice will identify if AdWords is the place for you.

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Google Places Changes Limited Information Now Visible on Google Places Pages

I wanted to share with you a letter I sent out earlier this month to our Google Places clients. I think that you should be similarly aware of the changes that we are seeing in Google Places that affect the use of account set up and management services including our own. You will always get the truth from us on things that have changed on the Web, even if it affects our service offerings.

For now, we are evaluating if we will continue to offer Google Places management services or create a new and revised program.

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I wanted to keep you updated with the changes that Google has been making in the last several weeks to Google Places.

First, it used to be that when your listing was shown in a local search that the first page in the search results Google showed was your Google Places page. It was crucial that this page be optimized for your services for local placement.

These past several weeks I have seen a change in the way Google returns Google Places. Now it appears that Google ranks your listing, but is driving traffic NOT to your Google Places page, but rather directly to your website. For some accounts Google shows a link to the places page which now really just shows an owner comment section (which we update monthly) and your Google reviews from customers.

Although I am not sure yet if Google is still using the information that we update on your account to rack and stack listings, what we have been doing in our monthly updates for Google Places accounts is not visible to the consumer when they click into the Google Places page – only reviews are visible and the “owners” comments.

For now I am not discounting the importance of what we do in a Google Places monthly update but am watching carefully so that every service you purchase from us has value. If based on this new information you would like to stop our $40 per month Google Places update service to see what happens to your listing, just let me know.

If as I evaluate further and if I see that what Google has changed makes our update service not meaningful for you, I will make sure to advise you so.

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At this point, I don’t have a definitive answer to let you know about Google Places, but I do feel that we will be changing our program based on what is visible to the customer as well as potentially creating a Google Review Getting program. Stay tuned as we try to reach some conclusions on where your money is best spent for Google Places.

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Facebook Business Page Interaction – What is the Best Level?

I have been doing quite a bit of testing this past month on Facebook interaction levels and what is the best number of updates for a business page now that Facebook has completed its most recent changes.

First, it is important to know that for over a year we have recommended two status updates a day so that you would not spam your audience and fans. However, with the changes that Facebook made in September everything is now different. With people being able to subscribe to your page without being a fan; fans being able to block, filter, or subscribe to the type of updates you provide; and now your inability to react directly with fans and not even know who is a fan by name, interaction levels need to be different.

This is what I have found out so far in my testing:

  • For Facebook Business Pages with about 100 to 500 fans updates about five times a day seems to work to get you exposed.
  • Actively responding to comments or posting is key to fan interaction growth.
  • Doing only two updates a day seems now to simply get lost in the Facebook noise.

For Facebook Pages that have 500+ fans the thirst for interaction is stronger. In many cases up to 12 updates a day PLUS interaction with the posting of comments, doing polls, and sharing video appear to not hurt a page but rather grow a page. You can review an interesting analysis done before the new Facebook changes in this interesting article for more background. Remember however that their findings are pre-Facebook changes and so may not be valid today but are good for review.

I am continuing our testing through the end of the month. Find out how you can join in and help and get our white paper recommendations at the end of our testing period sharing our findings.