Keyword Focus
November 23, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Notices
The Reason My Blog Posts Are Thinning Out On This Blog!
The more time I spend online and build blogs and websites the more and more I realize that this WHOLE game revolves around keywords.
I get lots of clients asking me to make them a blog or a CMS site for which they have grand designs of using as a platform to launch their online career and/or some latest product, gadget or service.
The startling thing is that they all have their focus in the same wrong places. What I mean is that they're invariably focused on design, trendy or cool sounding names, graphics, appearance, all kinds of blogging and site features including optin forms and newsletter blasting,.. BUT,.. they fail to focus on and give any kind of real attention to where their customers, clients and site visitors are going to come from.
WHAT ARE YOUR KEYWORDS FOLKS?
Unless you know from the outset what market you're competing in/for and what the specific keywords are that relate to your market, product or service then you're just wasting your time and your blog or site is going to be left to toss around like a cork on an open sea of competition.
Take this blog for instance,.. The Russ Rave,… it's a classic example. Sure I like my blog and I'm quite content with its appearance and layout and cool backend functions but what about traffic? I mean targeted traffic? This blog is so wide and diverse in its topics ranging from Copywriting and Internet Marketing, to WordPress themes, plugins, videos etc.
Whilst I get traffic across those areas its really spasmodic and hardly worthwhile. I mean, theses days the whole blogging scene is really streamlined and focused. Gone are the days when you could start a blog about "blogging" and expect to be successful,.. because you're competing with the Darren Rowse's, the Yara Staraks, the John Chows, The Gideon Shalwicks etc. And then there's the "make money online" niche (if it can still be called a "niche"… more like a monolithe!) In that niche you're up against the Frank Kerns, Mike Filsaimes, John Reeses, Lee McIntyres etc. So you have to be pretty dedicated and focused if that's going to be your ball game.
So,.. what I've decided to do is to dedicate myself and my time to breaking out into other more defined niches and create blogs specifically around that. It's not that I'm not interested in "making money online", its' just that my performance so far in that niche has been woeful (making the odd sale) but I do make money online by building blogs and CMS sites and selling associated services and products around that,- so that's where I'm going to really focus. It just makes sense really. So I'll have a blog for Wordpress and blog technical support and stuff, and a blog for website design, a blog for SEO etc etc. I'm actually working on them right now and spending a bit of time to get the keywords right so that I can highly for certain phrases that I know will get me some very targeted unique visitors who'll be looking for exactly the things I'm offering.
I'll be posting specific URL links later as my other blogs and sites evolve! <<< WATCH THIS SPACE >>>
In the meatime,.. this blog THE RUSSRAVE will stay active and published and will just be treated as my personal soapbox and "home" platform where I'll post stuff from time to time and just see how it evolves.
The reason I'm doing this is to be laser focused on promoting and marketing via keywords that are specific to the markets of which I'm interested in pursuing.
Please feel free to leave a comment if you wish.(we're CommentLuv enabled so you'll get a linkback to your blog)
Tweet This 
Digg This 
Facebook 
Reddit 
Stumble This
Related posts
Copywriting Inspiration
July 30, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Copy Writing
Copywriting Inspiration
If you’re an experienced marketer online or offline you’ll be aware that copy writing is the most important ingredient when it comes to making sales and getting people involved with you product, service or cause.
At some stage you’ll probably need to attend to the task of creating copy and if you’re a relative beginner (especially to Internet marketing) then that prospect could be a daunting one for you even if you’ve previously had some experience with persuasive writing.
The thing to bear in mind is that sales copy is simply “salesmanship in print”. That fact and statement has been echoed by all of the talented and great copy writers in existence but the thing is to understand what salesmanship is and how the approach to selling and the whole sales process changes from one industry to another as well as changing between peer groups and generation demographics.
It seems that the days of “hard sell” (pushy style) are all but behind us even though I’ve seen a recent wave of subtle hard sell messages online where the “fear”, “scarcity”, and “inadequacy” factor have been played on, and in some cases I believe too much so.
These days, people seem to respond far more positively to being sold to “softly” or in fact not “sold” to at all but “helped” to make investment choices that benefit them richly. For sure consumers are smarter and more discerning than ever and when you combine that with the fact that the lingering thought of recession, foreclosure sales and corporate downsizing, it just makes the task of facilitating sales more challenging than it’s ever been.
I draw my inspiration and copy writing ability from my past sales experience which included a stretch selling life assurance and investment products, door to door (where the first 15 words and 7 seconds either made you or broke you) as well as some media advertising and direct sales,- so I have a slight head start on the task. Having said that, I still like to carefully analyze good sales copy and try to break it down into demonstrable chunks which I can emulate here and there.
However, rather than sitting blank minded and frustrated at an empty word-doc, I often like to take inspiration from reading some good articles on copywriting and sales. That most often leads me either to Seth Godin’s blog or to Michel Fortin’s blog. I’ve found both of them to be excellent sources of information, tips, resources and inspiration. I was actually looking over a few of Michel Fortin’s articles last night and I realized that one of the reasons why he enjoys such favorable notoriety as a copy writing authority (apart from being naturally gifted in that regard) is because his blog has been going for years and as a result there are literally hundreds of articles from which you can draw a lot of information. I usually rock on over to his site and type in a search for some particular topic and most often I get a choice of several really terrific articles that I can find some useful tips or pointers from. I haven’t written this to win any favor or secure any financial reward from Michel at all,.. I just genuinely feel that the guy really has his finger on the pulse of what’s currently happening with copywriting and as such is a resource to avail myself of. One of the things about my blog is that I like to focus on pointing people in directions that I feel could help, and in the area of copy writing Michel Fortin is certainly one of them!
I’ll be regularly adding articles to this category so you can bookmark it, or subscribe to RSS or newsletter located at the top of the page.
Tweet This Digg This Facebook Reddit Stumble This
Related posts
100 Greatest Headlines Ever Written
July 29, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Copy Writing
Recently whilst searching for "The 100 Greatest Headlines Ever Written" I found several references to the list which has long been considered to be the best of the best. However, one of these lists was in the form of an article by the great marketing genius Jay Abraham in which he’d taken the list and then added his own expert commentary underneath each of the headlines so that the reader could gain a richer understanding of the simple yet powerful psychological triggers that were invoked by each of the headlines. The great thing about that is that you can take those psychological triggers and creatively apply them to your own headlines to come up with some powerful combinations. So I therefore concluded that rather than just pasting the plain list here, that I’d give credit to Jay Abraham for his excellent appendices and republish that article in this post. I’ve just a few of my favorites here, but you can see the full list and commentary in the original article at Jay Abraham’s site at http://www.abraham.com/articles/100_Greatest_Headlines_Ever_Written.html
1. THE SECRET OF MAKING PEOPLE LIKE YOU Almost $500,000 was spent profitably to run keyed ads displaying this headline. It drew many hundreds of thousands of readers into the body matter of a "people-mover" advertisement — one which, by itself, built a big business. Pretty irresistible, isn’t it?
10. DO YOU MAKE THESE MISTAKES IN ENGLISH? A direct challenge. Now read the headline back, eliminating the vital word "these." This word is the "hook" that almost forces you into the copy. "What are these particular mistakes? Do I make them?" Also notice (as with many of the other headline reviewed) that this one promised to provide helpful personal information in its own context, not merely "advertising talk."
13. YOU CAN LAUGH AT MONEY WORRIES — IF YOU FOLLOW THIS SIMPLE PLAN Something everybody wants to be able to do. A successful keyed ad upon which many thousands have been spent.
21. DISCOVER THE FORTUNE THAT LIES HIDDEN IN YOUR SALARY One of those good "discover what lies hidden" headlines. (Note others here.) A proven puller for an advertiser offering sound securities on a "pay out of income" basis.
23. HOW I MADE A FORTUNE WITH A "FOOL IDEA" Paradoxes excite interest. Broad appeal: almost everyone has once had a pet moneymaking idea that others have thought foolish and impractical. Sympathy for the underdog: "What’s the story of this man who ‘turned the tables’ on the people who ridiculed him?"
27. HOW A "FOOL STUNT" MADE ME A STAR SALESMAN What is the ‘fool stunt’? Why did people call it that? How did it transform this fellow? I’d like to be able to ’sell’ myself and my ideas — even though selling may not be my vocation.") A large expenditure was made profitably on this ad after its resentfulness had been proven.
85. 76 REASONS WHY IT WOULD HAVE PAID YOU TO ANSWER OUR AD A FEW MONTHS AGO An interesting example of an ad that backtracks — pointing out in detail what the reader missed by not buying the product before. A frequently repeated ad used by a well-known news magazine to pull for subscriptions.
———————————————————————————————-
So those are just a few of my favorites from the list that’s really worth checking out over at Jay Abraham’s site. Actually, I heard that someone had developed a program that created headline examples based on inputted keywords and other information, and then used this list of The 100 Greatest Headlines Ever Written to compose the samples. I haven’t tried it or even seen it but if any of my readers have I’d love to hear your thoughts,- which you can leave here by posting a comment.
Tweet This Digg This Facebook Reddit Stumble This
Related posts
The Great Product Creation Hurdle
July 25, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Momentum
If you’ve been on the Internet for any amount of time and have tried to make a few dollars selling or promoting or just trying to make money any way possible, such as with Adsense, banner ads, affiliate marekting or whatver, you will have it it said time and time again that in order to be really successsful with IM you need to create your own product(s).
At that point of golden realsization you suddenly understand that everyone who ever pointed you in that direction was right, and you then start to make plans to create your own product.
Actually, you’ll probably find that when you knuckle down to it, it’s not really that difficult.
There are lots of resources and courses and forums dedicated to this very issue (many of which won’t cost you anything to join) where you can get lots of ideas and some pretty reliable formulae for cranking out products that would be really worthwhile and highly valued by many of the folks you had in mind when first setting out on your product creation trail. Uh oh,.. ROAD BLOCK! So the grand day arrives when you’ve painstakingly put your new product together, the graphics are all done, the content looks great,.. and you’ve even put together some sales copy that looks pretty darn splendid,..BUT,.. how now do you get people to know about it and then motivate them to part with their hard earned cash to buy it? This is the one BIG area that newbie product creators and marketers encounter when they first releas a new product. Without a decent sized list or an army of affiliates or JV partners you’re pretty much stuck in a hole feeling sorry for yourself and considering your alternatives such as,- spending even more money to drive traffic to your sales page via an Adwords campaign. I recently read a terrific article by Paul Myers (a really excellent copywriter and Internet Marketer) in which he was addressing this very issue. In that article Paul said something that rang out as being so true and so typical,… he said
"Some get so wrapped up in the process of creating products that they never really think about how they’re going to sell them when they’re done." Paul Myers
I know this to be true of my own original efforts in creating products,.. and also that of many others including several clients. I put this down to a combination of factors;
- Inexperience (being a bit naive)
- Blinding excitement
- Fear of facing the truth
- Over confidence born of listening to too much hype!
- Simple lack of strategic planning
Sadly,.. this is the point at which many fine and talented people that have a lot to offer just give up and fall to the wayside in disillusionment, frustration, and mounting costs of "trying" to establish a profitable online working experience. It seems strange also, that many of these poor unfortunate folks just kind of limp along continuing to buy this program and that one in the hope that it will be "the one" that will somehow magically turn things around for them. The thing is though,… that until this issue of establishing your own online products is revisited and mastered,.. lasting success will continue to elude you!
Tweet This Digg This Facebook Reddit Stumble This
Related posts
The Momentum Forces
July 19, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Momentum
Momentum is an awesome and formiddable thing,- harness it and you’ll be 
unstoppable, but be at the effect of it and it’s like trying to shake the weight of the world from your shoulders.
How does this relate to Internet Marketing? Whether your focus is on the "IM" "niche" or whether you’re marketing to some other specialist niche,.. you first have to consider "momentum". Get it working for you otherwise by default it will start working against you. Let’s take the Internet Marketing niche (in which we could include any kind of professional online consultancy, whether that be in email etiquette or SEO management or whatever).
When you first decide to commit to this aspect of the online marketing realm then you’re approaching it as a relative novice who is about to embark upon a steep learning curve (the steeper the better actually!). It doesn’t matter whether you’re already successful offline in the same or a related field such as corporate consultancy, marketing, selling, success coaching, wedding planning or cake decorating,.. the fact is that the Internet is a whole different ballgame and the moment you stick your toe in the water you’ll start to get sucked into the Inertia and momentum of the Internet because whether you like it or not the fact is that the Internet and online marketing (in virtually every single niche you can think of ) is already charging along at an enormous rate of knots and therefore if you don’t recognize or understand the dynamics of the momentum of that then you’re likely to get swept away in the undertow of that mighty wave and get dumped very heavily on the sandy shores of disappointment and frustration despite the stellar effort and enthusiasm that you started with. On the other hand, if you go into it with a firm strategy and adequate knowledge and are willing to perform daily tasks that will be VERY difficult to stick to then you can succeed.
So,.. what are some of the ways in which you can get the power of momentum working for you when you’re actually setting off from a standing start?
I can list just a few here, although there are many more than I’m listing here (some of which we’ll visit in later articles).
- Get yourself on top of your task management (some people refer to this as "time management" but I don’t like that term because it infers that we "mere mortals" can control or manage time,…which of course we cannot (although many scientists have tried to figure that out including Einstein). However, we can control the way in which we manage our tasks and control our own behaviors and set patterns of productivity. I’ll confess right here and now and say that this is not one of my strong areas and I tend to let distractions and procrastination creep in too often, but in knowing that I do implement some systems and use some software that helps me greatly, one such product which is really quite brilliant and so easy to use allows me to set tasks and then to assign time quadrants for each of the tasks. I then just activate that task when I’m ready to get the task done and I stick with it until its completed while the software and the timer keeps me focused on the outcome being delivered on time. Then, upon completion a report is recorded and I can review these reports at the end of the day to see how objective I was in (A) allocation of adequate time for the task,. and (B) getting the task completed as specified. It really does help. I’ll be featuring this product very soon as soon as I write a proper review.
- Identify your daily goals and split them up task by task BEFORE you start the day. If you wait until your day gets rolling then you’ll find that by the time you’ve checked your emails and clicked a couple of "must see now" links that you’ve already wasted the first couple of hours,… and if you’re working on your Internet projects in your spare time (say after dinner of an evening) it can be 11pm before you realize that you’ve done zip and just added further weight to the tide of inertia puching against you. I like to write down the following day’s tasks the evening before,.. just take 15 minutes to really focus on what’s important and then stick to that list in the morning and you’ll find it really helps a lot and motivates you further because you can see results happening!
- Getting a mentor, accountability partner, or facilitator to work with. This is a really powerful way to get the momentum forces working for you because you’re immediately harnessing the experiences and skills of another person that’s working with you to keep you on track and help you avoid mistakes, pitfalls, and all kinds of results producing negative thoughts and emotions. However, just be careful that if you are hiring a "mentor" or whatever, that you know that the person can really help you and that the objectives of the engagement are put in writing before you start,. like having a working agreement that you can keep referencing against. If you can’t afford a mentor to personally work with (usually a mentor will cost you anywhere from $100 per month to $1,000,.. many of which are very worthwhile,..but some are absolutely useless,.. or worse…they can be damaging) there are alternatives you can employ. If you can’t afford to hire a mentor of be a part of a mentoring program (where the mentor works with a small group of say 20 people) then you can assign yourself one or two "guru mentors" for FREE. Yep,.. I said the "F" word… "free". How to do this,…. There are many really worthwhile gurus out there that have fantastic programs and write a lot of articles, e-reports and videos to help people achieve certain objectives (usually centered around IM success). Most of this content that is FREE,.. is really great and very worthwhile and powerful if applied properly. Of course the "guru" is enticing his "free" content followers with enough excellent content to convince them that their (the "guru’s") programs and products are worth subscribing to,- which in such cases of excellent free content,. the paid subscription is much more powerful again and can be the difference between mediocre achievement and remarkable permanent success. The key here to bear in mind is to NOT make the huge mistake of subscribing to 3, 4, 5 or more free programs because you’ll just get buried in information overload and conflicting methods and processes that can either really slow you down or stop you due to frustration and lack of focus. My advice is to select ONE guru (two at most) and stick with his or her free program until you’ve really got the most out of it. Follow all the information and read all of the content and watch all of the videos and then take notes and apply what you’ve learnt. If you do that you’ll find that it can really help you to move forward and clear up your focus. Once you’ve arrived at that point you’ll then be in a much more commanding position to make an objective choice about committing to some payment based course, but at least this time you’ll be able to justify $197 to $997 as being a sound and practical investment rather than a fear based emotional reaction to the need to advance too quickly. I’ll be featuring some of the free content programs and courses in m review pages shortly, so stay tuned or subscribe to this article via RSS feed.
Another example I can give of seeking out and assigning yourself a free mentor is in my own case where I’m very interested in successful copy writing. I’ve written many things and have created some very good sales and landing pages,..BUT,.. I certainly do not consider myself a guru and I always review and analyze other expertly written pieces of copy and research cutting edge techniques that are know to be getting good conversion results. I have several sources for this purpose and constantly use Google search to help me find new things, however, the main copy writing guru that I constantly refer to is Michel Fortin. I frequent his blog several times a week and I’m a member of his mailing list,… and that’s another thing,- his emails are great and always loaded with great free value and references. Now I don’t wish to present myself as a Michel Fortin freeloader,- and in fact I so far have never spent a dollar with him, but there’s a distinct probability that one day I will buy something from him or via one of his site links (if not, I really should start hitting his "tipping jar" because I really do appreciate availaing myself of his "free" mentoring support). One final and important codacil to that remark is that it only becomes "mentoring" material if you take it seriously and respectfully and then apply it,.. otherwise you may as well add it to the volumes of other free info gathering digital dust on your computer’s hard drive!
Cheers,
Tweet This Digg This Facebook Reddit Stumble This
