Get Slightly Famous

Own A Niche via Google

I'm currently delivering an online learning program, Growing Your Business With Google. One area of discussion is the online marketing strategy of achieving strategic, high search engine rankings around core areas of your business by finding under-competitive online search terms and building them into your online findability strategy.

For example, an area of focus for my business is Cause Related Marketing. Surprisingly, this niche is not filled with competitors, or at least not those who have carved out a strong presence online.

Last year, I placed an article I wrote about cause-related marketing on several web sites. The result was stunning. As of today, I rank number 4 and 5 in a Google search on that term. This high Google ranking has attracted journalists and others looking for experts in this area, and I've been asked to speak at a a conference.

Lesson: Investigate different areas of your business that can be promoted online via niche key word strategies. Look for areas that will serve your marketing strategy, but are not dominated by competitors. Experiment on Google, trying different search phrases. Then, consider adding key word rich content to your web site, or on others' sites via articles you submit.

Follow this online niche marketing strategy and you just might rise to the top of the Google.

Book donations wanted for the New Orleans Public Library

By Susan RoAne (susan@susanroane.com)

The New Orleans Public Library is asking for any books for people
of all ages in an effort to restock the shelves after Katrina.
The staff will assess which titles will be designated for its
collections. The rest will be distributed to destitute families
or sold for library fund raising. Please send your books to: Rica
A. Trigs, Public Relations, New Orleans Public Library, 219
Loyola Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112.

If you tell the post office that they are for the library in New
Orleans, they will give you the library rate which is slightly
less than the book rate.

WEBSITES REFLECT TRUE FACE OF AN ORGANIZATION

Everyone has a web site. But few people, I find, consider the way their web presence functions as a stand-in for their entire business identity. It's increasingly where people form their first impressions of you. And it carries over from everything to have your site looks, navitgages, how up-to-date it is, and whether or not you create your web site to be user centered, instead of a me-centered online brochure.

This inside from web content guru Gerry McGovern's recent newsletter sums it up nicely:

A website shows the true face of the organization as never before. A website is increasingly the place where customers get that vital first impression.

Spend a few minutes on the websites of most large organizations and you will learn a lot. You will learn how they really are, how they really view you, the customer.

You will learn if they are self-centered or customer-centered. Is the website structured so as to solve your problems fast, or is it based on some internal organization structure? Is the language second person and focused on the benefits to you? Or do headings and sentences constantly start with the name of the
organization?

Organizations are like nations, and you, the customer, are a foreigner. You might be treated like a welcome tourist, or like an unwanted alien, but you are always an outsider.

Thinking About Writing A Book? A New Study Shows Why...

If you have every considered writing a book to promote your business, here's an interesting study that might move you in that direction. It comes from RainToday.com, an online content site focused on marketing and selling for professional services firms.

I was recently visiting your blog and came across the post you wrote, “The Slightly Famous Media Plan.” In this post you outline various methods to get the media interested in your company. One particularly good way of doing this is by positioning yourself as an industry expert.

In a recent survey, we found that writing a business book is an incredibly effective way of establishing oneself as an industry expert. We surveyed the author’s of over 590 business books and published the results in the report, The Business Impact of Writing a Book: Data, Analysis, and Lessons from Professional Service Providers Who’ve Done It (http://www.raintoday.com/writeabook.cfm). Some interesting results we found include:

98% of authors reported at least some brand improvement as a result of publishing their book
74% of those same authors reported a ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’ influence on publicity and PR for their practice
95% of authors said that writing a book had at least some influence on their ability to generate more speaking engagements

And from the authors themselves:

“It established me as a guru in my field” – Bob Bly, The Whitepaper Marketing Handbook

“Just do it! The spin-off business makes (writing a book) one of the most productive things you can do to build you practice” – C.J. Hayden, Get Clients Now!