AddMe Internet Marketing Website Promotion SEO Blog

WordPress Community (WPUA.org)

By Addme on December 3, 2010 9:43 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

A good friend and partner of AddMe, Wesley Williams recently announced a social hub for all wordpress users called WordPress Users Association, a WordPress community. This is a shameless plug about the new site and it special offer to all new members, enjoy!

The WordPress Users Association (WPUA.org) - Special Opening with Free Basic Membership!

The WordPress Users Association is now open for free registrations! Those that take advantage of the free offer will get Basic membership, which is normally valued at $97 per year. As a Basic member, get free access to tons of WordPress resources. Everything from blog templates to Plugins shared exclusively by the community. Even if you are a new blogger, you can get some expert advice from WordPress, other WordPress users, and videos that can help you get started.

Joining at the Premium level gives you even more benefits where you can add your resume page to your public profile along with any links to your social networking sites. You can add your company to the members directory for added exposure and you add special events to the public WPUA events calendar. Although normally $199 a year, WPUA's special opening cuts that in half to just $99 a year or $9.97 a month. Both the Basic and Premium membership level offers are limited so join now to learn and master blogging and WordPress. Plus, you'll be able to connect with other WordPress and blogging enthusiasts.

All new members will receive the "Blogging & New Media Report" which normally sells for $97. This online magazine contains all sorts of interesting content for the blogging world.

The WordPress Users Association (WPUA.org) is just getting started and no other community has attempted to bring together all of the loyal WordPress users into one place so this is your chance to join an exclusive community where you can learn from the best.

The WordPress Users Association will change the way you blog - no matter what you know or want to know about blogging. Visit http://www.WPUA.org

New Found Love Of Twitter And My Mobile Carrier

By Addme on November 24, 2010 8:05 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I've been a user of Twitter for over 12 months now (I think) in that time I've found it useful though not something I cannot live with out.

Sure, it's a great source of news, it helps me keep up-to-date with search industry trends plus I get a good insight into what my piers think on certain topics.

Apart from this I've failed to get a massive amount of value out of twitter, that is up until now!

In the past couple of weeks I upgraded my mobile contract and in the same breath received a bill for my mobile phone, which was nothing less than MASSIVE! In my fluster to login and see what was happening with the account I forgot my password thus I was soon locked from the system. This meant I was unable to check my online bills and pay them (I was fine with the later).

I called the billing and the support department and they were of NO help what so ever, it was similar to calling a PC support department "have you restarted your computer" that kind of stuff.

After a couple of days with no help what so ever I resorted to social media, firstly my personal Facebook account status update "Matt is not happy with his phone bill" to which I received responses from friends and family. Thanks for the help guys though not what I was looking for.

At this point the penny dropped, I wonder if a tweet in the carriers direction would help?

So a simple tweet at the carrier and within the space of a couple of hours I had a response and they were looking into the issue. The next day I had a call from the person who responded from my tweet (it even sounded like this person was in the same country as me). The social media team member then helped me resolve all my issues and sent me on my way, a very happy camper.

So, what does this mean?

1. Twitter IS a valuable support tool

2. Twitter gives the customer access deep within a company

3. Twitter is a highly cost effective CRM tool

Continue reading New Found Love Of Twitter And My Mobile Carrier.

50 All-Time Great Retail Email Subject Lines

By VerticalResponse on November 24, 2010 4:26 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Here at VerticalResponse we're always being asked things like, "What is the best day to send email?", "What are the real email marketing secrets?" and "What are great subject lines?". I decided to focus this post on that last one, and offer some really great and proven-to-work subject lines that you can test out for your email marketing campaigns.

First of all, I'm assuming at this point that your recipients will recognize you from your "From Label". I've written why your From Label is very important in your email marketing campaigns. If they are familiar with who the email is coming from, you'll have better luck getting your email opened with a catchy subject line.

As a retailer your email marketing campaigns are probably all about selling. If you sell your own products or products from other manufacturers, you'll be trying to announce new products, new seasons or discounts and sales. You'll want your recipients to act fast, so you may want to try expiration dates in your subject line. We even see businesses using hours in the day in their expiration time periods.

You'll see that some of these subject lines are a bit vague like "An Exclusive Offer for You", however sometimes that might get more opens than if you talk about a specific product. That's something that you need to test for yourself in your own campaigns.

Offer, Offer, Offer

Enjoy this Special Offer at Our New Location

25-40% off - Email-Only Offer - Today Only

Invitation-Only 2 Hour Event Starts 11:30 AM CT

Ends Today! 20% Off Friends & Family

Top 10 under $10

Free shipping - offer ends in 3 days

Free product with purchase of [product name]

[New Product] has arrived. Order now before we run out.

Earn double points for [insert product or action].

Last Chance: Get up to $25 now

Save 10% on your next order

Enjoy [season] with rates from $65

Service Notice: Exciting new changes at [your company]

An Exclusive Offer for You

[Your company] October Specials

Last minute deals, special offers, and new [product name]

Act Now to renew your [subscription name]

Online only: 25% off friends and family

Introducing our latest...[product/feature here]

[Product name] Promotion week. Save 25%

Extended for a day! Get Free shipping through Friday

Stock up and save 15%

Limited Supply: Limit 2 [product name] per customer

Ho-ho-ho: The [your company] holiday catalog is here!

Email subscriber exclusive: [Product name] sale is here

Ends Today: Take 20% off your entire order

Private Sale Ends Today

Your choice of amazing items $50 + under

Great gifts for [Dad, Mom, etc]

Best Sellers every [girl, boy, man, woman, dog, etc.]

Everything you need when the temperatures [rise, fall]

Free Shipping--Limited Time Offer

Catchy & Creative

Sometimes all you need is a little vase lift (retailer selling vase's)

We've got you covered from head to toe (retailer selling hats, shirts, pants and boots)

How La Perla got its name (retailer selling lingerie, telling a story inside the email)

Temperatures Fall, Style Rises (retailer selling coats)

Celebrity Favorites (selling accessories that Hollywood is wearing)

Did you remember to get a gift? It's ok, we did. (retailer wanting to get people to register for gift reminders)

10 Gift Ideas for your little ones (retailer listing top 10 suggestions for kids)

Manhattan View for a Song in the Shower (retailer selling shower curtain with Manhattan skyline on it)

Take your pick: Our 9 Favorite Dresses (retailer suggesting by popularity)

Coolest modern desk on the job...for $149 (retailer including price in the subject line)

Score Great Savings on Game-Time Gear: HDTVs, Furniture & More (retailer selling TV's with a sports slant)

Party Like it's 1999 Aged Cabernet Special (wine retailer)

In our store: Last minute Mother's Day combo ready to go (retailer getting the last minute shoppers with a catch "combo to go".)

Adorn Your Home Now & Through the Holidays (Home decor retailer)

Mind-Blowing Grenache (wine retailer)

Bring this email to a Gap store and win! (retailer trying to get store traffic)

Continue reading 50 All-Time Great Retail Email Subject Lines.

Off Page Optimization (SEO) Tips

By Addme on November 22, 2010 1:07 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Webmasters have far less control over the "off-page" optimization factors than they do the "on-page" optimization factors. Off-page optimization does, however, influence how a website ranks in search results, so it should not be ignored.

Use the following off-page optimization techniques to improve your website search engine ranking:

1. Keywords In Incoming Links

The anchor text used to link to the web page should contain important keywords or keyword phrases. The linking text is viewed as "contextual" by search engines.

2. Quantity Of Incoming Links

Search Engines will often monitor the quantity of incoming links to a website. A large quantity of incoming links is an indicator of popularity or importance, and the search engines will favor sites with a larger number of backlinks. Search engines use the volume of incoming links to give better ranking to more popular

3. Quality Of Incoming Links

While search engines value quantity, they value the quality of the links even more. Backlinks from trusted and related websites matter more than a large volume of links in general. Whenever possible, solicit backlinks from trusted authority websites.

4. Timing Of Incoming Links

The gradual acquisition of links appears far more natural to search engines, and will not give the appearance that a webmaster is attempting to manipulate the ranking by gathering a large number of links in a short time frame. Try to spread the number of links obtained over time, rather than getting them all at once.

5. Varied Linking Text

Vary the anchor text slightly when possible, so that the linking appears natural to the search engines. The text used to link to a webpage should be varied.

6. Blog Commenting

When commenting on blogs, use a keyword phrase in the "name" box. That will often result in a backlink for which you have control of the anchor text.

7. Forum Posting

When posting in forums, include your keywords or phrases as part of your forum signature, as another way of encouraging backlinks.

8. Press

Submit any press or media announcements to increase exposure and backlinks. Each and every link back to your website can help the site rank better, so take the time to develop quality backlinks and optimize the anchor text to increase your search engine's ranking.

Continue reading Off Page Optimization (SEO) Tips.

29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses for Your Business

By VerticalResponse on October 27, 2010 3:20 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

There are a ton of ways to get people to sign up for your email marketing offers. I've put together a list for you to read, so you know all of the ways you can be growing your list.

Put an offer on the back of your business cards to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
Tradeshows - Bring a clipboard or sign-up book with you to tradeshows and ask for permission to send email to those who sign up.
Include a newsletter sign-up link in your signature of all of your emails.
Send an opt-in email to your address book asking them to join your list.
Join your local chamber of commerce, email the member list (if it's opt-in) about your services with a link to sign up to your newsletter.
Host your own event - Art galleries, software companies (one here has a party every quarter and invites the neighboring businesses), retail shops, consultants (lunch & learn) can all host an event and request attendees to sign up.
Offer a birthday club where you give something special to people who sign up.
Incentivize your employees - Give them $ for collecting VALID email addresses.
Giving something for free like a PDF? Make visitors sign up to your opt-in form before you let them download it.
Referrals - Ask you customers to refer you, and in exchange you'll give them a discount.
Bouncebacks - Get them back! - Send a postcard or call them asking for their updated email address.
Trade newsletter space with a neighboring business, include a link for their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter.
SEO - Make sure you optimize your site for your keywords. You need to be at the top of the natural search when people are looking for your products or services.
Giveaways - Send people something physical and ask for their email address as well as their postal address.
Do you have a postal list without emails? Send them a direct mail offer they can only get if they sign up to your email list.
nclude opt-in forms on every page on your site.
Popup windows - When someone attempts to leave your site, pop up a window and ask for the email address.
Include a forward-to-a-friend link in your emails just in case your recipient wants to forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting.
Include a forward-to-a-friend on every page of your site.
Offer a community - Use Ning as your easy-to-set-up community and have your visitors interact and sign up for your newsletter.
Offer "Email only" discounts and don't use those offers anywhere but email.
Telemarketing - If you've got people on the phone, don't hang up until you ask if you can add them to your newsletter.
Put a fishbowl on your counter and do a weekly prize giveaway of your product - then announce it to your newsletter. Add everyone who put their card in on to your newsletter list.
Include an opt-in form inside your emails for those people who get your email forwarded to them.
Tradeshows - Collect business cards and scan them into a spreadsheet. Make sure you ask permission to send email to them, then mark the card.
Use Facebook - Host your own group and invite people to it, then post new links often. From time to time, post a link to sign up for your newsletter.
Use Facebook - Post the hosted link from your newsletter into Linked Items to spread the word.
Use Facebook - Include an opt-in form on your Facebook Fan page.
Use Twitter - Twitter the hosted link of your email campaign every time you launch. If you've got any additional ideas, let's hear them!

Send Your First 250 Emails Free - Increase your customer sales with email coupons, newsletters and sales announcements from VerticalResponse, an award winning email marketing provider.

Search Engine Registration

By Addme on October 26, 2010 5:06 PM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

Registering your website with a search engine should be one of the first things you do once you've finish creating the site.

Like any other business you need to register and promote your website encouraging people to visit the site. What better way than via the use of a search engine like Google.

There are two main ways you can register your website with a search engine, one is manual hand submission the other is using a search engine submission service (these services are also known as search engine registration services).

Manual hand submission is known to be the most effective way of registering your website with a search engine BUT there are thousands of search engines on the Internet. I don't know about you but I do not want to be doing manual hand submissions to all these search engines.

Using a search engine submission service to register your website with these search engines is often a far better way to begin promoting your website.

Most registration services will charge a fee for a full submission; this fee will range from $3.00 to around $40.00 as per any other service you pay for what you get, if you opt for a cheap service then you will receive a cheap product.

Pay that little bit extra and you will receive other important services such as search engine registration reports and support for further search engine optimization issues you may encounter.

Continue reading Search Engine Registration.