5 Tips for Better Results with Mobile Email Marketing

Picture this scene.

A reader of your blog and a loyal subscriber gets a new mobile device.

No problem: You’ve taken great care to make your site mobile friendly.

You’ve even taken the right steps to convert more mobile readers to your email list.

So you feel pretty confident that all your bases are covered.

Until your subscriber gets her first email from your latest marketing campaign. It’s all squished up on the screen, it’s impossible to click on any of the links, and the message overall is terribly hard to read.

Your loyal reader really wants to get the benefit of your great content. So she spends some time fumbling around trying to make sense of it.

But eventually frustration wins. She gives up and hit the red “delete” key.

Think this doesn’t happen? It sure does. I’ve seen it, more than once.

Mobile email marketing design is smoking hot. If you can manage to make sure your mobile readers are satisfied with those subscriber-based emails, then you have covered what may be the largest of your readership. And here are some tips to help you out.

1. Include a plain text version of every message

Including a plain text copy of every HTML message you send will help eliminate potential issues for those subscribers with mobile readers that do not support HTML.

Any good email marketing service lets you include a plain text version, make sure you’re using it.

2. Keep links uncrowded

If your email message has links that you want your readers to click on, such as navigation back to your main site (recommended), then make sure those links stand out on their own.

In other words, keep them uncrowded so it’s easy to click them within a very small space.

Imagine your loyal reader flicking around on a tiny screen to get to that link — and how frustrated you get when the links are so close together that you can’t land on the one you want. If you want clicks, make it easy.

3. Pull the reader in with your subject line

Hop on over and read Brian’s article on the three key elements of irresistible email subject lines.

Now … actually use those three key elements for your email marketing messages.

Like any headline, an email subject line has to capture attention quickly and drive the reader to click through.

By the way, the current best practice for subject lines for mobile devices is to keep it within 5 words. That’s right, you have about 5 words to grab the attention of your reader. Why? Because after about 5-7 words, the subject line gets truncated and thus it’s a lost opportunity.

4. Use the right tags for your images

If your email marketing message includes images, make sure you include an alternative (alt) tag to describe what the image is. (You should be doing this for any HTML content you create — mobile readers aren’t the only users who may not be able to see your images.)

Don’t stuff this tag full of keywords, it doesn’t work. Use it for what it was meant for — to briefly describe what the image is, in a way that lets your reader make sense of it if the image isn’t visible.

Many devices can display all your images correctly, but not all of them will, so it’s just smart to use alternative text to make sure every reader gets the message that image was supposed to convey.

5. Is your call to action clear?

People using mobile devices spend a little less time taking in the content due to the smaller screen sizes and the fact that they are usually on the go, so make sure your email marketing has a clear call to action.

Put it either near the beginning or somewhere where it will stand out. Don’t make it hard to find … after all, it’s the key to getting the response you want.

Last thoughts

You might be wondering how to know what your email message will look like on all these devices. Just because it looks great on an iPhone doesn’t mean it won’t be mangled on a Blackberry. There are some great simulators out there that let you see how things will appear on the various devices. A Google search for “mobile device simulator” will give you lots of options.

Whatever email marketing service you use, spend some time in settings area and explore the various options they have for delivery. Now that you have some tips to keep in mind, you never know what options they have that you just didn’t see before.

How about you — what experiences have you had with mobile devices and email marketing?

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How Will I Know if my Idea will be Profitable?

It is a great question, and one that many people starting companies forget to ask. After all, it doesn’t do you any good to sell a lot of units, or provide a wonderful service, if you lose money every time you do. That approach is, as they say, “not a sustainable business model.”

Having asked the question, the short answer is this: You can’t know with absolute certainty, before you begin.

The longer answer is while there is no guarantee, you certainly can take two steps to minimize your risks.

How?  By acting as the most successful entrepreneurs do.

If all you did was read the popular press, you would think that serial entrepreneurs, that is those people who have started two or more successful companies, love risk.  They swing for the fences at all times.

Nothing can be further from the truth. They are extremely risk adverse.

So, to make sure they don’t over-extend themselves, invariably:

1. They take small steps in the direction they want to go. They don’t make huge leaps.  (And after they take that small step, they always pause to review what they have learned to make sure the next small step they take is a smart one.

2. They always bring along like-minded potential partners. Not only does this allow them to move faster, it spreads the risk.

Neither of these moves, of course, guarantees success. (Nothing can.) But should things not go as planned, you have minimized your risk which will allow you to try again.

This guest post was written by Len Schlesinger is President of Babson College, and formerly served as Chief Operating Officer for Limited Brands. With his new book, Action Trumps Everything, you can learn more about how to act like an entrepreneur, as well as how to use a new entrepreneurial formula called CreAction to work for your goals. Please visit www.actiontrumpseverything.com for a free copy of the book.

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Mobile Trends 2011 for the Realist

You know how we approach research here at Marketing Pilgrim. We look at the title of the report or survey, then we look at the source, then we see the (more often than not) obvious connection to why this ‘research’ was done. The answer is usually PR versus actually showing or proving anything.

These reports often leaves one scratching their head but on occasion there is something that comes across our desk that refreshing because it is, gulp, realistic.

Objectivity in research is defined for me by the use of words that don’t always make every subject sound like an online Utopia where everything is always positive and things are always on the rise. That’s not the real world. Research that states for a particular vertical that everything is ‘unicorns and rainbows’ is marginalized because nothing in this world is all upside. However, you would never guess that from most of the research in the marketplace these days.

That’s why I found the Forrester Report called Mobile Trends in 2011 to be a breath of fresh air. It’s a report that dares use words like irrelevant and a phrase like ‘will generate little revenue’ when talking about the latest sacred cow of the hype machine: mobile.

The report gives a great look back at the 2010 year in mobile and Forrester grades itself on last year’s predictions. That’s interesting for sure and a good reminder of where we have been in the rapidly evolving mobile space.

What’s most interesting is Forrester’s take on the future which include statements like the following for 2011

Use of the mobile/social/local combination will explode but will generate little revenue.

Blasphemer! How could anyone even think such a thing?! That section of the report is closed with

…….location-based advertising will not generate meaningful revenues in 2011.

C’mon, Forrester. Now you’re just not playing nice! Everything that is being hyped right now is guaranteed to be wildly successful right now because, well, because we need it to be! How dare you consider letting realism seep into this conversation! Forrester did footnote this heretical viewpoint by saying essentially that the future is bright but the present is not going to be the home run that everyone is predicting.

Another realistic view is

The apps versus mobile Internet debate will continue — and remain irrelevant

This statement is really about something that is endemic in the Internet marketing industry. It’s this assumption that the degree to which we in the industry use all things digital and cool automatically translates to the rest of the world. Reality check: it does not currently and until the industry recognizes this it will continue to blow smoke up everyone’s skirts to the point of sounding silly. The Internet industry is so full of itself at times that it often forgets that an incredibly large percentage of the rest of the world doesn’t get what it is saying and, in most cases, could give a crap.

As a result apps, may not rule the day for the less sophisticated. The increased smartphone adoption by the “less app apt” (which Forrester affectionately refers to as the ‘dumb’ smartphone user) is an important development. The prediction from Forrester is that average number of apps downloaded by these less sophisticated users be smaller than what the industry may be accustomed to. Download less? How dare they!

Needless to say I liked this report vs. the others in the space because it was not afraid to say things that would fly against the industry ‘conventional wisdom’ which often times has little to do with wisdom and might be better labeled ‘conventional promotion’. Of course, these are all predictions so we’ll just have to wait until next year for Forrester to grade themselves on calling these trends. Should be interesting for sure.

The report is not a freebie and can be purchased here (Marketing Pilgrim receives no payment from Forrester for reports purchased).

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Twitter’s Promoted Tweets Roll Out; A Make or Break for the Social Network?

Well, they’ve been a long time coming, but Twitter ads are finally ready to go mainstream…almost!

MediaPost reports that the self-service version of Twitter’s promoted tweets are being rolled out to advertisers–albeit a select few. So far, Clix Marketing’s David Szetela is the only one talking about it and he’s landed Guy Kawasaki as a Twitter ads client.

As part of the roll out, we’re starting to learn a few more details of how they work…

…Twitter’s self-serve platform requires the advertiser to enter a name, and date and time to run the campaign. It also asks for “interests” and “search keywords,” as well as a maximum bid and daily budget…the backend technology crawls tweets and user bios looking for the frequency of repeated words. The platform determines where to insert tweets in the user’s timeline, but it’s not clear if the algorithm takes into account Twitter followers. Nor is it understood how Twitter will rank the Promoted Tweets in Twitter streams.

What’s not confirmed is whether Twitter will score the ads based on how often they are clicked, RT’d, etc, though many suspect this will be the case. Otherwise, you’d end up with a system that’s easily gamed.

Right now, advertisers must commit to a 3-month campaign–presumably so Twitter can collect enough information about any changes that may be needed–and they can select from different types of ad payment options.

This really is Twitter’s revenue tipping point. Remember before Google has AdWords? Sure it was popular, but it wasn’t making any money. It wasn’t until Google figured out how to monetize its search results, that the company saw an explosion in growth.

The same’s about to happen for Twitter. It’s no wonder that the company has taken almost a year to roll out self service ads. Twitter’s entire future rests on the success of this program.

Next stop? A $4 billion valuation and a couple hundred million in revenue! Then? My bet would be an IPO in 2012.

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The 6 Essential Steps to Writing a Killer Press Release

Think the press release is dead in the age of social media?

No way. A powerful press release can tell a story, report news, or help a cause. Smart online writers know that a great press release can take your message to new channels and reach thousands or even millions of new readers. And a terrific press release has great SEO benefits as well.

Writing a press release takes time, research and some skill. And writing a killer press release, which catapults visibility of the message and drives results, requires adding a few more ingredients to the mix.

To get the results you want, follow these six steps:


1. Craft a hook

If you’ve ever had a song stuck in your head, you know what a great hook is. It’s that chorus or beat that you just can’t shake.

Just like in pop music, a great hook is key to success in writing a killer press release.

To find your hook, spend time before you start writing your release researching the press releases and blog posts of industry competitors, gathering information about which releases and posts have received significant coverage. Use these successes as a guideline for your own release, with an eye toward what types of content your audience is reacting to and/or sharing.

Great hooks pull us into a remarkable story. They engage our curiosity and make us crazy to find out more.

Remember the primary audience for a press release — a journalist. Reduce the basics of your message down to one sentence that answers the 5W’s of reporting – who, what, when, where and why — and find that story hook that will help them write a story their readers won’t forget.

2. Add a great headline

If you’re a Copyblogger reader, you already know the importance of a compelling headline.

You only have a few seconds to grab a reader’s attention, so be sure to craft a headline with the following elements:

• Lead with a concept, not your brand name — your audience (both readers and reporters) probably don’t care about your brand or company name, but they do care about finding a good story. Lead with a compelling concept to draw them in
• Be creative — don’t confine yourself to the headlines you see in other press releases. Use all your Copyblogger-inspired skills to create a headline that stands out.
• Test — test your headlines just like you would any other content. Find the headline that grabs attention and makes the reader want to learn more. You can repurpose a headline that’s worked particularly well for you in blog content or a special report, for example.

3. Avoid jargon

When writing killer press releases remember to minimize technical or industry jargon. Although relevant for certain professionals or groups, jargon may confuse your audience and turn them off to your message.

To engage new readers who may not be as skilled in industry language, write for a broader audience and increase the likelihood the content is shared. Keep it simple, and don’t be afraid to offer explanatory resources if some industry or brand-specific names or words are needed.

4. Provide resources

We don’t live in a one-dimensional world, and your press release shouldn’t look one-dimensional either. Provide added value to your killer press release by including photos, videos, links to source material and any other in-depth resources, giving your readers the assets they need to fully report the news you’re providing them.

A complete “package” of supporting resources makes your story that much more appealing to a reporter looking for something great to cover.

Remember, we live in a digital world, so be sure these resources are web-ready and in the correct formats for web publication. The easiest way to do this is to use accessible cloud-based services like YouTube, Flickr and others that allow visitors to download content. 

The easier you make it for a reporter or editor to publish your story, the more likely they are to pick up on your message.

5. Proofread

Errors in grammar and spelling can kill your credibility and take away from your overall message.

Write your release in word processing document instead of a text file or online submission form. When you’ve got it drafted, print it out and proofread your writing. Correct and rewrite, then proofread again.

Investing additional time before submission is what separates a professional press release from a clumsy, amateurish effort.

6. Share your news

A good news release distribution service will syndicate your news on relevant publisher sites, and it will also attract readers through search (be sure to be strategic about keywords, as with any other kind of content marketing).

And if you’ve done the legwork to build relationships with influencers in your space, don’t shy from sharing your news release by emailing a link or posting a link to your social media outposts.

Keep your audience in mind when creating your message and stick to these 6 tips to help craft your press release. When you put the thought and time into creating a truly killer press release, you’ll find it can drive traffic to your business and help promote your message.

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Another Affiliate Traffic Source – Adoori

*me being vanna white for the adoori booth lol*

Finding the perfect advertising method for reaching your target audience has never been more complex. How can you make your campaign a success without spending too much money? How can you get your audience to engage with your ad in the right way? How can you get your audience to respond to your call to action?

Enter Adoori, an advertising network in a sea of advertising networks. With a unique focus and an easy to use platform, Adoori sets itself apart from its competitors. Affiliates have been drawing attention to Adoori lately, which is why you should take a closer look. Will the network really take your advertising to a new level? Let's find out.

About Adoori

Adoori describes itself as "a platform which provides both advertising and publishing products and services globally." Sounds like the description of a hundred other advertising networks, right? What makes Adoori unique is that it focuses on pop-under ads. Pop-under ads appear behind the window instead of in front of the window like pop-up ads.

You can choose the link your pop-under ad targets, which means you can use Adoori to send traffic to your personal website or a landing page. Eventually, the network plans to add other types of ads. For now, affiliates are finding new ways to make successful pop-under campaigns.

Pop-under Benefits

Pop-under ads are unique and have a serious advantage over pop-up ads (no pun intended). For one, most people see a pop-up ad and immediately look for the "x" to close the window. Pop-up ads have a stigma that says they are annoying, distracting and unwanted. Pop-under ads, on the other hand, hide under the window until it is closed. Why does that work?

• People are less annoyed to see the ad
• People aren't scrambling to find the "x" to view the page they actually want
• People are more likely to be interested because it seems less invasive

How it Works

The first thing you notice about Adoori is how easy it is to create an account. Notice that the sign up page only asks for your e-mail, username and password. The user-friendly platform is almost immediately apparent.

Setting up a campaign is also fairly straightforward. Your dashboard will highlight all of your basic information. For example, your account balance, impressions and total costs. From your dashboard, you simply create a new campaign, give it a name, target your link and place your bid. The bidding system that's available is one of the best features of Adoori.

Although the platform and campaign creation process will be clear-cut for most, new advertisers could get confused along the way. The most obvious flaw is that there are few helpful resources for new advertisers who might not understand some of the terms or processes used. It's hard not to notice that a FAQ page is missing.

Fortunately, the platform has a saving grace. Adoori ensures the traffic is always defaulted by the user's IP location because advertisers buy their local traffic. This saves time for advertisers and makes the entire process that much easier.

Why it Works

Instead of targeting by content, you are targeting by location. This could be seen as both a disadvantage and an advantage. On one hand, your loan ad could appear on a fashion website. On the other hand, affiliates who are able to think outside the box can find ways to make location targeting work for their campaigns.

You will notice that there is tons of Premium traffic in the US, UK and Western Europe. The best part is that it is unique traffic because the frequency cap is 1/24. Another feature worth noting is the amount of exclusive publishers.

Finally, when it comes time to pay, Adoori makes it reasonably simple. You can choose a recurring PayPal payment option, which means you will save 3% in processing fees. Fortunately, a credit card payment option will also be available later this year.

Conclusion

Overall, Adoori is a unique network that could mean huge profits for the affiliates with the right strategies. If you're going to sign up, check out the special mixed country offers. These offers will allow you to target multiple countries at a discounted price. Also, be sure to look at gaming, shopping online and traveling ads because they are all performing well on the Premium traffic network.

How can you make pop-under ads work for your campaigns?

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Don’t Use Twitter Like a Wet Cracker

Crackers – The drier the better! Am sure you would never go shopping for a wet cracker. Then why use a twitter account the same way?

Twitter is a marketing bomb if used the right way. I have been using twitter for more than 2 years now and have been benefited only when I discovered the right way to use it.

Just like many of us I usually blindly do 2 things:

1. Blindly follow as many as suggested twitter accounts to follow.
2. Blindly tweet every single post on my blog using the retweet plugins.

I can for sure say these two are the biggest mistakes that could get your cracker wet.

The major pattern you could see on Twitter is:

• You get followed back by many if you follow them
• People subscribe to auto-follow tools to increase the follower counts
• Your Twitter dashboard is flooded with tweets if you leave it un touched for 10 minutes
• As soon as you tweet you see few new visitors from twitter landing on your website / blog

Is that what Twitter is all about – a few extra visitors, lot of blind tweets, flooded dashboards and huge chunk of followers to show off?

Now let me share what I learnt the hard way and something that could really help you benefit.

I created another twitter account and followed a different strategy that the one I used to use and many of us still use.

I had the new Ground rules this time:

• Only follow who I really wanted to
• Will try to keep the follower to following ratio unequal
• Have a straight forward profile Bio (simple words about me and what I do)
• Have a real profile pic (preferably not a graphic unless you are a huge brand)
• Respond to direct messages
• Visit / Reply to interesting tweets and if good, re-tweet.
• Meet / interact with real people and build contacts
• How this was different from my previous approach

With my old profile even though I had 8000+ followers on a retweet I used to get 120 -150 new hits on my blog posts. Then what are the 7850 followers for? Spamming you? I guess you have got the message I am trying to send across.

Here is a snapshot of my account: ( I have 60 people I follow and 1794 followers)

Take Home: Twitter is all about real people and real contacts – build them and you would be rewarded.

About the Author: Joshu Thomas is a Blogger from India. Blogging and web development helped him become independent, and that is why loves it. You can read more from him on his website, OrangeCopper.com.

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B to B Companies Plan Online Spend Increases

The B to B world online is a different marketing animal in many ways. While B to C marketers get all of the attention with their online promotions through Facebook, Twitter etc the B to B crowd slogs through the online world at a pace that maddens some. In other words, the move a bit slower than their B to C brethren.

B to B Magazine (which I recommend you check out on a regular basis) recently did a survey that echoes the “b to b is a little less sexy online” with the results on where increase in spend would occur in 2011. Essentially it’s all about the basics and, quite honestly, I suspect that many of the B to C hares could take a hint from the B to B tortoises. eMarketer shared the following

As for social media the B to B crowd is pretty realistic in that it sees much of social media as a brand building effort. While this is good and obviously important, I think that the B to B players who catch on to the other benefits of social media more readily will reap benefits. Brand building is all well and good but when done correctly social media can do a lot more.

If you are a B to B marketer do you agree with these findings? What makes the B to B space more conservative in its approach to online? Will there be a day when the B to B online space becomes more dynamic like the B to C space or is this just the way it is?

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The 4 Social Media Trends All Marketers Should Look Out For In 2011

How has social media affected our daily lives? What have you been using social media for? Checking out what George Bush is having for brunch? Posting comments on some photos of your best friend’s latest Milan shopping trip (with a tinge of jealousy)? Instant messaging your colleagues on where to go for booze tonight when you have tons of work to clear in office? Sharing a seriously hilarious video on YouTube that you cannot stop laughing at all day long? The list just goes on and on but you see that social media has often been thought of something used to pass the time or to have a bit of fun in it.

No doubt about that, businesses in 2010 have started to notice the massive audience present in the social media platforms and realize that it is time to capitalize on this market share to gain a competitive advantage. Soon, those who really wish to reach out to their online publics will have to start treating social seriously as the social aspects of the Web are about to become a whole lot more important.

GAME ON!

The real shift - that has started in 2010 - will develop and mature in 2011 and most certainly, we will see a move from social media marketing to social business. There is definitely a need for businesses to realize the benefits of the social platforms and the impact of how the social game is going to change their daily operations. The task in 2011 is clear now: adapt or you are out of the game ... Here are four trends that we have seen so far in social media marketing and trust me … we will see more of that in 2011.

Social Media Marketing Budget On The Rise

Studies have shown that businesses generally plan to increase their marketing budgets as the global economy picks up. This is hardly surprising though as new forms of media consumption grow, so too are the marketing dollars being poured into them. Furthermore, there is an increase in the number of brands which are prioritizing this expenditure on social media marketing over other forms of media. Businesses have changed their stance on this expense by treating it more as a regular (or integral) spending item rather than being experimental. With budgets for social media marketing clearly on the rise, those who are currently remaining tepid about the medium may jump in once the best practices of the social game are established and in general, the spending should continue to grow.

Rethinking The Value Of Social Media

As businesses allocate more budget for social media marketing, they will be asked to justify the performance and value that they will be deriving from this spending. No longer are we measuring the number of Twitter followers, the number of Facebook likes or the amount of web traffic that they can get. It has to be something even more concrete as businesses need to work out how implementing social media has enabled them to realize their business benefits. It can be the increase in revenue derived from these customers that you have connected with online … it can be the reduction in the resources that your helpdesk call centre requires as a result of customers contacting you online instead. 2011 will see brands building models to evaluate their social media metrics and conversions. We will see a shift from measuring what can be measured using a tape to showing value.

There’s More To Location-Based Marketing Than Just 70% Discount Vouchers

Social networking has finally gotten ever more important for the brick-and-mortar businesses. Location-based social networks (with enabling tools such as smart phones or iPads) allow users to interact, discuss, share and recommend places based on their physical geographical coordinates. This real-world social media connectivity can mean more foot traffic and profits for businesses. If 2010 was the year that these were developed and used by more people, 2011 will be the year that more brands embrace them to add value to their business operations. It is just going to become even more prevalent with more innovation with these tools.

It’s Not Just About Marketing … It’s Way Beyond That!

Finally, social media has always been much more than just about marketing and sales.
“It’s greater than marketing,” as Sandy Carter put it. She is the Vice President, SOA & WebSphere Marketing, Strategy and Channels for IBM Corporation. “Social media can transform everything from service and support to inventory management. It can even be part of your commitment to corporate social responsibility. For example, holding virtual events in Second Life was one way we chose to implement our green strategy.” Social media is about public relations, communications, customer service, insight and new product development. Social media is all about engagement … engaging your customers and prospects. Sandy has also learnt the most basic lesson of social media success: Listen. “50% of social media is about listening,” she said, “So the ultimate question you need to ask is, ‘Have you listened?’” Such is how businesses have transformed and we will definitely see more of that in 2011 and future.

As CEO of Affiliate Home Business, Jack Harold is an experienced Internet marketer and has helped thousands of his students to apply Internet marketing strategies to succeed online. If you will like to know how to make money online, you can grab a free copy of his exclusive “The Rags To Riches Blueprint” at his website, Affiliate Home Business.

[Image Credit]

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5 Ways Facebook’s Discussions App Will Make You a Better Blogger

This guest post is by Tommy Walker, Online Marketing Strategist and owner of Tommy.ismy.name.

“Build a community.” You hear it all the time. “Comment on other people’s articles, guest post, and join the conversation.”

One of the problems with the way most online communications systems are set up is that they’re top-down in nature. A blog requires posts before people can comment, Facebook’s Pages require updates if they’re to stand out in the News Feed … the list goes on and on.

And while these methods are essential to community building, getting more comments or tweets or Facebook shares on an article is not an act of community building. You’re building a successful broadcasting platform—sure—but broadcasting to a bunch of people is not community.

Community isn’t defined by a high number of comments, either. Community is defined by the conversation that’s happening between the people leaving comments.

If you want to be an authority, creating killer content is only the first step. A true leader has the ability to embed ideas, spark conversation, and inspire others to rise to the occasion. The next step is to give those you inspire the resources to communicate with each other about the ideas you’ve implanted.

This is where the Facebook Discussions Application comes in.

The Discussions App

1. Facilitate lateral communication

Think of Facebook’s Discussions Application as a poor man’s forum. While it lacks the ability to share photos, link with anchor text, or even give users a signature, it does one thing that’s vital to community building: it allows members to communicate with each other.

Find a healthy balance of topics that you can discuss, and invite readers with whom you have a relationship to start topics on their subject of expertise to help out. Topics can be started by any person who “likes” a Page—they don’t have to be started by the Page administrator.

At first, it’s likely you’ll have to get people into the habit of checking the Discussions tab through status updates, because conversations in the Discussions Application are not published to the News Feed. However, once you’ve got people communicating with each other, your Discussions application will take on a life of its own.

2. Have exclusive conversations

Have a favorite book, tool, or other secret weapon that you’d like to talk about, but it doesn’t quite fit into your content calendar?

Instill a sense of comfort among your community members that encourages them to start conversations that apply to their specific situations. Use the Discussions App to share resources with your community and keep the information exclusive. In other words don’t tweet it, post it on youtube, or blog about it: keep it exclusive to the Discussions tab.

Of course anyone can “like” your Page and gain access to it, but the idea here is to keep little gems tucked away so your loyal and most active readers gain a feeling of exclusivity.

3. Field questions

If all of your content surrounds a specific theme, but a member of your community has a question about something else you’ve established your authority on, the Discussions Application is a great place for them to have a side conversation with you.

One of my clients runs a regional restaurant chain. Fans of their Page frequently use the Discussions App to ask questions about a new stores opening in their area, vegan/vegetarian friendly food, and upcoming events.

Hubspot, an online marketing agency and technology firm, sees frequent queries on their Discussions tab ranging from questions about their products and reports to blog-and-website-101 type questions.

By encouraging your community to ask questions in this setting, you do two things:

1. If they’re asking a Frequently Asked Question, you can address it in a public setting so others may be able to see it.
2. You make it possible for other members of your community to show their expertise on a particular subject.

Of course, sometimes not everyone will agree on a particular answer, which brings us to our next use for the Discussions App.

4. Discuss incendiary ideas

Can’t we all just get along? Well, quite honestly sometimes the answer is just plain “No!”

Discussions can be a great tool to either spark or facilitate debates on incendiary topics. Sometimes when a conversation has the heat turned up on it, people come out with their best stuff, so every now and again bring up a topic on which you know people will have opposing and strong viewpoints.

Just a word of warning, though: a good debate can bring a community together—or tear it apart. Your job as the authority is to keep debates respectful and to prevent people from crossing the line.

5. Extend the conversation

Don’t let the conversation die simply because it gets buried in the News Feed. Start a topic in Discussions to extend the conversation further.

One of the perks of being a Page administrator is that all participants of a comment thread are notified when you respond to that thread.

So let’s say for example you publish a status update that, for one reason or another gets a ton of feedback. Chances are that the conversation won’t die simply because it’s no longer interesting. More likely, they’ll die because it’s no longer visible.

Why not start a Topic on the Discussions tab to allow members to continue the conversation? Though the conversation won’t be published to the News Feed, it does bring people a little deeper into the overall experience, giving more meaning to your relationship. Also, depending on the topic, the thread could become a resource that you can link to from time to time.

These are my preferred ways to use the Discussions App to build community around a blog. Have you tried the Discussions App yet? What tips or advice can you add?

Tommy is an Online Marketing Strategist and owner of Tommy.ismy.name. He is about to release Hack The Social Network, the ultimate guide to Facebook Marketing, and is currently developing a “mind hacking” course.

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The Digital Muscle Behind Infomercials

The late Jack LaLanne of The Power Juicer (May He Rest in Peace)

First, we got Lean ’n Mean with The George Forman Grill. Then, we were dazzled by the Bedazzler. Oh, the 21^st century infomercial has provided us with so many titillating, and downright hilarious, consumer goods.

So what, you ask, are the top-selling among them?

Weight loss remedies, exercise equipment, kitchen appliances, and skincare products.

Thanks to off-peak advertising space and late night shopaholics trolling the broadcast networks at 3am, we have… the infomercial. And yet, these days, the infomercial isn’t just saved for the 3am crowd. The infomercial has finally made it to the mainstream. In fact, by 2009, most US infomercial spending was during early morning, daytime, and evening hours and, if that’s not shocking enough, over $150 billion worth of consumer products in the U.S. are now being sold through infomercials.

Otherwise known as long-format or program length television commercials (that can often be a source of annoyance when you’d rather spy Tom Selleck’s long legs in Magnum P.I. re-runs), infomercials can last anywhere from 5-28 minutes. As Collette Liantonio says in StartUp Nation, “Short form works best for lower priced items that are easily grasped.  Products that add intellectual properties that depend on testimonials for credibility are better served by long form.” So, although the term ‘Infomercial’ has become synonymous with short-form DRTV (Direct Response Television) advertisements of 60-120 seconds in length, the idea is much the same; a celebrity, or some eager beaver in Minnesota, is just dying to tell you how much better, easier, faster and prettier your life would be if you purchased your very own Facial Flex or Tiddy Bear.

However strange some inventions, or outrageous these late-night claims may be, today we’re witnessing a shift in perception thanks to the power of social media. Sure, some of us share links to YouTube videos on Facebook and Twitter about Forever Lazy, the wearable blanket with a poopie pouch, because it makes us laugh, but far more of us are charging our credit cards to purchase these items because we just can’t resist the comfort, and the humor, of owning a Snuggie or a pair of, you guessed it, Pajama Jeans.

Pajama Jeans

The evolution of the infomercial in the digital space is this: the ability to rapidly discuss and disseminate these advertisements via YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Why – and how – has the infomercial spread so rapidly throughout the digital domain?

It’s not exactly rocket science. Almost every successful consumer social media campaign is paired with paid media to complement the strategy. The key is to craft the strategy carefully. Is it the holiday season when families are holed up watching television after gorging on turkey and stuffing? Insert a well placed advertisement for Pajama Jeans on the Food Network.

Certainly the product must appeal to the masses, but the strategic placement of the content is crucial. In addition, the ability for the infomercial to be easily shared on social media networks and channels clearly bodes well for the product and the platform. In addition, offices thrive on ridiculous ‘water cooler’ chatter, so, even if Snuggies or Pajama Jeans seem downright silly, they’re also a surefire way to get people talking.

Once they talk, they think. Once they think, they just might do.

Today, marketing executives and entrepreneurs may consider the viral potential of their infomercial in the online realm unlike ever before and, because infomercials now reach audiences beyond the 3am crowd and the television set, that means new opportunities for products and marketing.

Whether the product is campy or quotable, the ability to encourage a meme is evident. Once upon a time, infomercials lived in a vacuum of insomniacs and those that generated WOM attention were few and far between, but put Jack LaLanne, the He-man of Health, on TV to talk about The Power Juicer and you might build some buzz. After all, the charismatic man was seventy-one, full of energy, and jacked like a weightlifter on the Venice Boardwalk. Or, invent a handy product like the Magic Bullet and produce a corny sitcom infomercial that’s so awful you’ll be compelled to keep watching just to see much worse it can get. In the past, that might be where the spot began and ended. Now, Jack (and his brawny biceps) is immortalized on YouTube.

Today, almost every quirky infomercial gets play. Given this online environment, the age old adage, “Nothing kills a bad product like good advertising” doesn’t exactly apply anymore. So, whereas, The George Forman Grill was a quality product that earned WOM, Pajama Jeans and Snuggies don’t necessarily need to be good products, but they’ve succeeded in part because they’re quirky and notable. Let’s face it, we’re knee deep into an age when corsets have given way to Juicy Couture (with their own pink track suit featured at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London). The design, development, and dissemination of sportswear’s ultra-comfort have reached new heights or, as some might claim, lows.

What’s most fascinating about these crazes, however, is not the extreme level of comfort being sold to, and sought by, the consumer, but the speed by which an infomercial spreads to the online realm creating a veritable Laugh Factory of jokes (Is that an adult onesie?). As Inc. Magazine explains: “An infomercial should get people talking about your product—for better or worse. Shake Weight founder, Johann Verheem, found a surprise hit with his infomercial, which has been viewed millions of times on YouTube and lampooned for its sexual innuendo on Saturday Night Live.

“It’s not just that sex sells, but one of the other things very important in direct selling, in infomercials, is that a product looks different enough for someone to stop and watch it.” In addition, according to a recent New York Times article, 95% of Snuggie sales are derived from brick-and-mortar stores. “Many entrepreneurs consider an infomercial like an audition for shelf space in big-box retail chains, which is extremely competitive to get,” the NYT explains, “That’s why it’s important to position your infomercial to give it the greatest chance to be picked up by a national retailer.

Steven Marcus says that one crafty tactic employed by entrepreneurs is to launch the infomercial campaign in the hometown headquarters of a retail chain. “Let’s say they want to get it in Walgreens or Wal-Mart. They buy airtime in the home town of the corporate headquarters where the buyers can see it,” he says. “The [executives] see it on the air for a while, and they track down the guy with the product.”

So, while infomercials appear to be the catalysts for social media chatter, strategic placement is critical.

Everyone knows that Americans want comfort, convenience, and conversation. When I got my own pair of Pajama Jeans, I was beside myself with joy. Now, I can stroll into the office and model them for my curious co-workers. It was an easy gag. Or was it? Yes, they’re comfortable and, yes, I actually like them. I’m even wearing them now. Would I prefer a more well-placed pocket? Sure. And this is why I blog. I know that once I write this, I will post it around the internet and send it to Pajama Jeans because, just as their infomercial influenced me, my blog posting will influence them.

It’s a digital win/win.

Now hand me my Snuggie. I’m feeling Forever Lazy today.

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Has the Internet Made Teaching Lucrative?

When I turned 18, my father took me aside to talk about my future.

“I don’t care what you do for a living“, he said, “as long as you don’t go into education.”

I obeyed to a point. I never did go into academia; I didn’t become a schoolteacher or a professor.

But I currently run a business that teaches craftsmen and professionals how to master the fundamentals of business on their own terms, without spending years in school and without racking up six-figure debts.

I’m in education, along with thousands of other people who teach valuable skills online. Brian is in education. So is Sonia. And most likely, so are you.

My dad was a schoolteacher

And he was a damn good one.

His specialties were math and science. Instead of following the textbook or drilling for tests, his students learned by doing real experiments. Every outlet in his classroom was used to power some sort of gadget. Piranhas prowled his fishtanks. Model rockets in various stages of construction were a fixture — they were the tools he used to teach sixth graders physics, chemistry, and trigonometry.

When I was eight years old, my dad decided to stop teaching. Not because he wanted to, but because working as a teacher in a tiny Ohio township didn’t pay enough to support our family. Dad’s salary was so low that our family qualified for the free/reduced lunch program at the school where he taught.

So, instead of doing what he loved to do, Dad decided to switch from teaching to administration, and began a career as an elementary school principal.

The change dramatically improved the family budget, but it was a very real sacrifice. Instead of directly interacting with his students in the classroom, Dad spent most of his time filling out paperwork, handling school politics, disciplining the 5% of the student population that couldn’t behave, and managing the parents of those students, who (more often than not) were angry their children were being disciplined.

That job made my dad miserable for over twenty years. It’s little wonder he warned me away from education.

I honestly tried to take my dad’s advice

I enrolled in college as a computer engineering major, since I was good at working with computers. Engineering was a respected, high-paying profession, which sounded great to me as a young man with no experience in the world of work.

It didn’t take me long to learn the dangers of mystique — after a year’s worth of classes, it was clear that I’d be miserable as an engineer. I didn’t care very much about how to make a faster microprocessor — I cared far more about how people use technology.

Since engineering wasn’t right for me, I decided to try business. My computer skills led me into a job at a Fortune 50 corporation (Procter & Gamble), which was experimenting with using the internet to market household products. A few years later, I found myself in brand management, working for the company that invented the field.

I was in a high paying, management-track job, working for a prestigious, well-known company.

But I was miserable.

As much as I learned in my time at P&G, I couldn’t get over the nagging feeling that something was wrong — that if I continued on the path I was walking, I’d squander my life selling bottles of soap.

So I decided to disobey my father. I went into education.

A different kind of education

By education, I don’t mean credentialing — the process of handing someone a fancy certificate for completing an arbitrary set of criteria, which is what passes for “education” in most high schools and colleges today.

I mean education in the learning sense — helping people master useful skills that will improve their lives.

I started my website, PersonalMBA.com, as a side project when I graduated from college. Instead of spending an enormous sum of money on graduate school, I decided to educate myself, and share what I learned with other people interested in doing the same thing.

Two years ago, I quit my job at P&G to teach business full time. I’m essentially a business professor — but I don’t have an MBA, I don’t have a PhD, and I don’t work at a business school.

I teach craftsmen and professionals how to master the fundamentals of business on their own terms, without spending years in school and without racking up six-figure debts.

My teaching business is exploding. I make my living in a way that my dad would have found hard to foresee: teaching business skills to adult learners around the world (most of whom I’ve never met in person) using a few inexpensive tools, my hard-won knowledge, and my personal experience. My clients hail from over forty countries across six continents.

My initial investment in some basic digital publishing training and equipment has produced the highest ROI imaginable: a debt-free, global, six-figure teaching business. I’m making more than most college professors with a fraction of their schooling.

I can work from anywhere that has a stable internet connection and a phone line. I operated my business on a dialup connection in the mountains of Colorado for six months. And I could easily move anywhere in the world at any time.

I’m not saying this to brag. I’m saying this to emphasize an important point: the world has changed dramatically in favor of skilled teachers.

This is a golden age of teaching

My decision to disobey my father may prove to be the best I’ve ever made. Teaching for a living has brought me financial stability, an enormous amount of freedom and flexibility, and the satisfaction of improving my students’ lives for a living. Many of the methods and tools I use to teach my students didn’t exist when I graduated from college just five years ago.

That said, it’s important to realize that the new world of teaching has placed new demands on teachers.

Your authority and credibility no longer depend on credentials — it depends on mastering skills by practicing them in the real world. You must be sensitive to what your prospective students want to learn, instead of forcing them to learn whatever you decide to teach them. And there’s no such thing as tenure. You stay relevant and useful or you lose all your students.

Attracting students requires learning the arts of content marketing and sales — and using them every day.

Delivering quality training requires developing technical skills you may not yet possess. Above all, you must overcome your discomfort in charging what your services are worth, and learn to ask for the sale.

Four years ago, I dreamed of teaching for a living, but I didn’t know where to start. If you’re in the same position, you’re in the right place. Copyblogger helped me get started, and they’ll help you on your journey as well.

A few weeks ago, my wife Kelsey and I welcomed our first child into the world — Lela Christine. Eighteen short years from now, I expect Lela and I will have the same conversation I had with my father — only it’s very likely I’ll recommend becoming a teacher.

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10 Simple Tips To Get 250,000 Page Views Per Month

When we started our business 16 months ago we decided to use a blog as the central marketing tool for our business. We did it because we didn’t really have any money for advertising and we never really believed that attending networking events would work for us. We placed the blog at the center of our website and only had one commodity on our hands to make it a success….time.

It’s been a long journey but 16 months later we now get 250,000 pageviews to our site per month, in the last year we have brought in over $500,000 in business as a direct result of the blog and the business operates in 2 countries and our content has been picked up all over the world. We’ve largely used social media to promote the blog and grow that audience and today I wanted to share some of those tips with you and even though you might not have a business attached to your blog you’ll hopefully gain some good insights in to what works for business blogging….

1.Get some professional help at the start

We paid a small amount of money to get our blog designed by a professional at the start as well as getting somebody to add in the proper SEO plugins. Since then we haven’t really touched it design wise and have instead focused on the content. If you are serious about blogging or creating a business around your blog then you should invest a small amount of money at the start making it look professional.

2.Integrate Facebook wherever you can

Facebook is the most important social media tool we use in terms of bringing traffic to our site. It accounts for just over 18% of the traffic on our site and the 11,000 odd Facebook likes we have are people who come back to our site on a repeat basis to consume our content. Make it easy to share your content through Facebook and if the content is good enough it will spread like wildfire.

3.Forget about getting traffic from Twitter

Many people get obsessed with Twitter as a social media tool that drives traffic but let me save you lots of time and energy now because it simply does not. Less than 1% of our traffic comes from Twitter on a monthly basis despite some of our stories getting 100s of Retweets. You can certainly share the odd link through Twitter to gain some new readers but it is not the magic formula that you have been looking for.

4.The old blogging tricks still work best

Read many of the great posts on there or on any of the other great blogging advice sites and they’ll give you great advice like to make sure you add catchy titles (probably why you are reading this post in the first place), to write often and to guest post on other blogs. These are old pieces of advice but in a world where people are obsessed with social media and the new tools those are the tools that by far and away work the best. They are the easy wins.

5.Give everything away for free

As a business we sell advice on social media. We also do a very strange thing in that we give that advice away for free on the blog all the time. There is nothing in our heads that we keep for ourselves but instead focus on sharing as much of that knowledge as possible. By giving valuable advice away you make sure that people keep coming back to your blog for more advice and that’s how you build and audience. People are selfish, if they are coming to your blog they want something for free and that is what you will have to offer.

6.Be Social In The Real World

A huge amount of people who read our blog are people that we have met in the real world. Being social online is one thing but forging a social relationship with somebody in the real world is still far more powerful than anything. Try and attend conferences within your niche, meet people with similar interests and if relevant share your blog with them. If you are lucky enough to be able to speak at any events then work your blog in to the presentation and pitch yourself as the person of authority on your given subject.

7.Use rich media content if at all possible

Text is great and it’s an important part of blogging but not everybody is a good writer and even people who can write should try and support their content with rich media content if possible. I think it helps you stand out form the crowd. What do I mean by rich media content? Photos, videos, podcasts, diagrams, slidehows or presentations. The technology is there now for you to post most of these things for free and they’ll push your content out even further to new platforms.

8.RSS is still the dream subscriber

These days you’ll see plenty of ways to subscribe to blogs including email, Twitter and Facebook to name but a few but one stands head and shoulders above all the others for me and it’s the oldest one in the list…RSS. Getting an RSS subscriber is getting somebody who is totally committed to receiving your content every single day. I cherish RSS readers in a way that I would never think about Twitter followers or Facebook likes. The social subscribers are doing it as an impulse but an RSS reader is somebody who wants to get your content every single time you publish it instantly. You should take RSS subscribers over everything else in my opinion.

9.Build A passionate community around your blog

This is by far the hardest point on the whole list and there isn’t really any written rule on how to achieve it. The one thing I think you have to do most is be nice to everybody and reply to as many comments as you physically can. Comments on your blog, comments on Twitter, comments on Facebook or Youtube or wherever the person has left a comment. People fly through the web these days pausing for a second at a time on sites these days so if they are taking time to leave a comment oon your blog then the very least you can do is stop and answer them. Building community take a lot of time but you should never underestimate the power of word of mouth when it comes to your blog or business and a passionate community is just about the most powerful thing around today.

10.Never give people the hard sell through social media

Once you build a community or a large audience for your site the temptation is always there to try and sell to them or to push your products. We never ever write blog posts asking people to use our services. Make no mistake that they can find our services within one click if they are looking for them but we’ll never push them because people can smell the hard sell a mile away and they’ll never go for it and you’ll end up pushing them away instead. The idea with social media is to engage people and have a meaningful conversation with them. That is what works best in the long run.

About the Author: Niall Harbison founded Simply Zesty which is an agency that represents some of the biggest brands around and guides their strategy.

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