I could get used to this.

I had a phone call, I met with a representative of the company, I called to confirm the deal was closed the next day, and then I set fourth to announce (and brag) to the world that I was one lucky mofo. I was going to be partnering with a company that plans to have up to 20 people on the street hocking my wares and all I have to do is show up, do what I do best and get paid. Leave it to me to find a way to screw it up.

So, how did I essentially hang myself with my own mouse cord? I simply took my mouse in my hand and made a blog post.

You see, I learned a lesson today. Blogs can be dangerous. Before you post ANYTHING on your site–before you even THINK about what you’re going to say on your site–make sure that you know what you’re talking about. Make sure you have permission–and if necessary–make sure that you have a contract in place. Most importantly you need to be aware that a blog is a tremendous way to get the word out and people will hear you–and yes–they will be PISSED if they don’t like what they hear.

A blog (if configured properly) can essentially announce your message to the world in a big way. I’ve been blogging for years and I’m still not sure I quite believed it until today. If you use a person’s name, a company name, a product name or a brand name within one sentence of your post, you could have that company’s lead attorney calling you direct within the hour. An hour after that, your name is on the voice mail or within the inbox of the CEO; and now HE’S pissed.

My point here my friends is that a blog is a tremendous tool, but we have to know how powerful it is. You must be careful what you say AND how you say it. In my case, I made a casual, light-hearted announcement about a partnership. Well, to an attorney of a growing national company, a partnership is NOT something that a small company like mine announces; EVER. Especially without a contract, an official press release–and probably–a mention on the BIG company’s site first.

The moral of the story? Be careful what you post. We’re all carrying loaded weapons that are very powerful tools if you don’t stop and think about what your typing, announcing, reviewing, or spewing. People WILL know about you and your blog sooner or later and that could come as quickly as an hour after you hit the publish button. You don’t want to regret hitting that publish button. It’s like firing a bullet that you can’t get back.

photo credit: chez_worldwide

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Thanks to webmasterworld.com and poster sugarrae for this useful list of traffic development practices for the new year. Enjoy…

1) Find sites that are about your topic in general but are missing pertinent information that you provide on your site or that you can create an angle to merge with their topic and email the webmaster at one email address with a personal email that notes things about their site only a human visitor would and explain why you think linking to your content would benefit their readers.

2) Write 800 word articles for sites that accept submissions that publish based on merit and not that you know how to fill out a form and giving them a custom article written only for their site. Link out generously to other sites in the article and be sure to include a link of your own (to something legitimately helpful to readers of the article) within the article if possible.

3) Buy links to get the resulting traffic and having that link placed somewhere on the page where visitors will actually see it and pretending search engines don’t exist when debating a purchase. And if you’re going to buy a link, make private deals with site owners or use brokers who do the same with a very limited clientele of purchasers.

4) Find the top 50 keywords for your sector and write an interesting piece that relates to the topic in an unusual fashion that won’t bore people to death if they bother to read past the first paragraph.

5) Wait until you have a newsworthy topic (or creating one) and submitting a carefully crafted press release focused on getting media attention and making sure it is viewable in all the big news engines.

6) Don’t waste time submitting to a lot of directories unless the directory itself has a large following or pageview tallies (meaning it will send a lot of traffic).

7) Encourage extreme variety in anchor text of your inbound links and letting people link to you using whatever anchors they feel necessary. (Anchor text = the wording on their link back to you)

Finding one (or a few communities) and becoming a regular, valid and helpful contributing member.

9) Creating a blog that has real value and traffic attraction on your own domain (or a separate domain if branding is an issue) which leads readers into the commercial area of your site during opportunities within posts or the blog design where it makes sense.
photo credit: pbo31

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So you say you want to advertise your local business but a full online marketing campaign is just too much investment for your small local business. What are your options? Try the Yellow Pages… Online!

Now, I’m not suggesting that you call up the phone company to get listed on their website. Most yellow page sites don’t provide enough traffic to justify any extra expense. If you advertise in the Yellow Pages you know what I’m talking about. So what are your options you ask? Try Google local and Yahoo local.

Recently, Yahoo Local has rolled out an upgrade to their local search and it’s now cheaper than ever. Yahoo Local has rolled out an update to its business model for local merchants, and it’s looking a lot like what the Yellow Pages do, only online, self service, cheaper, and, well, what I’ve been on about for a while – a step towards the online version of what the Yellow Pages really need to become.

By going to the following link you can see the offerings on hand. They have a free listing, enhanced listings for $9.95/mo. or an featured listing (no public pricing available). Do yourself a favor and submit your site here for free. It’s a win/win deal.

Unlike traditional Yellow Page advertising, local online advertising provides detailed reporting data so you can know exactly how many people have seen and clicked your listing. This is a great way to figure out your ROI. You choose the categories and regions associated with your listing. And unlike standard search results, you can adjust your listing messaging any time. What’s better than that?

Getting a listing added to Google Local is completely free. Google is taking a different path to their local service and combining it with Google Maps. Google also allows you to run PPC advertising though that’s targeted to Google maps local searches. This is the time to make sure that your site is listed because it’s highly unlikely that it will ever be this easy and affordable again. Do a search for your business first to make sure Google hasn’t found you already then the best way to get listed is to go to the following link and follow the online instructions to set up a Google account (free) and submit your listing!

Once you fill out the proper online forms, Google will send you a confirmation postcard to verify the street address. This postcard will contain a PIN that you will enter online to verify the listing information. It will take up to 6 weeks for verified listings to appear in the Google Local results so get started ASAP.

Also, just as a general “cool tool” for finding your way around our vast United spaces, check out the Google local search at http://maps.google.com/ and zoom in to your local area and switch to satellite view. Very cool.

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