3 Public Relations Tips for Your Small Business to Boost Sales and Awareness Now!

1. Post an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Press Release.

To boost online attention right away, take a look at the press releases at PRNewswire, www.prnewswire.com. Then, write your release by following their specific format (The Associated Press Style Guide format). Provide valuable information to your customers and include your top keywords for the search engines in your header, subhead and a few times in the body of your release.

Once you have proofread the release for errors, simply post the release on free sites online related to news and your industry. You can find these sites by doing a search for “free press release distribution” or looking for sites relative to your products, service and audience. If you want to spend a little money on distribution, check out the many services available and see what fits your budget and goals best.

2. Give a Presentation.

Where does your target market go to get information? Check out various organizations and associations in your local area and offer to give a presentation to their members. Just be sure to provide valuable information and wait to give your sales pitch at the very end of your presentation.

This way, you’ll meet new customers and appear to be an expert in your field. You can even invite local media-members to attend. Who knows? The local television news station may show up to cover your public relations event!

3. Offer a Tip Sheet, Newsletter, Case Study, or Something Cool!

What do potential customers get when they come to your site? Are you providing valuable information and answering their questions, or are you just selling your products and services?

Copywriting is an important part of public relations. If you can create some kind of interesting tip sheet, newsletter, case study, or other, electronic “gift,” you’ll win over new customers and start spreading positive, word-of-mouth.

Just think about what your customers want and give it to them in a way only your business can (examples: Top 10 Ways to Save Money at the Grocery Store, How to Reduce Your Energy Bill by 80% in 30 Days or Less, What Never to Eat at Airports – You get the idea.) And once you are ready to give away your “gift,” send out an SEO press release to announce it!

Small Business Public Relations Just Takes Time and Creativity

If you want to boost sales and awareness for your small business, take advantage of cost-effective public relations activities. Be creative and think of ways to provide valuable information to potential customers. Then, contact the press and let them know what you are doing. This may sound simple, but you can generate a lot of buzz with these three tips. Give them a try and let me know what happens!
If you’d like help with your small business public relations, please provide your comments below or contact me at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

Time period 5/1/2011 - 10/31/2012

169, 013 units sold

I should also point out that we maintained an almost spotless seller record on Amazon - 97% or better feedback and rated Excellent by them, which is very tough to achieve.

Still awake?  Here comes the good part.

So, I woke up on a Monday in late October of 2012 with an email from Amazon that informed me that Amazon was permanently closing my account because “they suspected we had sold a counterfeit item.”  The action was permanent. The end.  Have a nice life.

Wha???

Amazon allows you to appeal the decision via email one time, and so I did.  I pointed out all the logical arguments:  a) hey Amazon, what item are you talking about? Can we see it so I can agree or disagree?  b) in the last 17 months we have sold 169,013 items and have NEVER had a complaint for counterfeit, which is because we literally examine each and every item we receive before we send it back out for sale and since we have been inspecting dvd’s for over 10 years, we are experts at detecting counterfeit.  c) did I mention we are rated Excellent by Amazon with a 97% feedback rating?

Within 48 hours, Amazon wrote back to say that my appeal has been denied.  The end.  Have a nice life.  I wrote all of my Amazon contacts.  No response.

So, just like that, my second  business had been wiped out.

Hold the phone - there’s a lot more. Go get some more coffee

Well, I can’t really have a nice life just yet.  Know why?  Because I have 55,000 items stored at Amazon’s FBA warehouses, and now they are all just sitting there incurring storage fees.  Amazon will happily either return my items to me or destroy them for me.  For .50 a unit + shipping or for .15 a unit, respectively.

We’re entrepreneurs - let’s do math!

55,000 x .50 = $27,500 + shipping to return my items

55,000 x .15 = $8,250 to destroy all of my items

Amount of money I have after the spectacular failure of Inflatable Madness a few years earlier =  $0.00.

I try to explain my dilemma to Amazon via their email case system, and it goes something like this (cue the Benny Hill music):

Me: Amazon has permanently closed my account. I have a large volume of items in the FBA program. I cannot afford either the .15 disposal or the .50 return fee. I would like to have my items returned to me. How can Amazon help me accomplish this?

Amazon: Greetings,

I apologize for the current situation you are facing.

Unfortunately, there is no other way other than place a removal order or disposal order which will be charged of the amount you have already mentioned in your email.

We will not be able to exempt the removal or disposal fees in this case.

Please write back to us with your confirmation so we can go ahead with further processes for placing a removal or disposal order for your existing items in our fulfillment center

We look forward to hearing from you soon,

Me: I’m not sure you understood my original email. Amazon has turned off my account and cut off all of my income. I cannot afford either the .15 disposal fee or the .50 return fee. I feel that Amazon should waive the return fee and give me back my inventory.

Amazon: Greetings,

I deeply apologize and I completely understand your situation.

Please know that we will not be able to waive out the removal or the disposal fees as Sellers are not exempted of this fee. Therefore I kindly request you to create a removal order for the units present in the Fulfillment Center.

Sooo,  there’s that.

Here’s where we start to go down the rabbit hole.

A few weeks later, I receive a phone call from another seller of dvd’s and music.  Not just another seller - really they are the second largest 3rd party FBA seller of media on Amazon. They are huge. 10 times my size or more. He tells me that they have been kicked off of Amazon as well for “potentially selling a counterfeit item”.  They had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their product back out of Amazon’s FBA program and their overall business has taken a serious hit.

He then very casually asks me how I was handling the lawsuit against me.

Exsqueeze me? Baking powder?

I tell him I have no clue what he’s talking about, and he points me to a legal website that states that I have been sued by a major DVD manufacturer/distributor for selling counterfeit.

Um, huhhhh?

This was at the end of October.  I did not receive a single piece of paper about the case until mid-December.  Sure enough, I was being sued for selling a counterfeit item on Amazon.  I call up some attorneys and am told that my legal fees would be $25k or more to defend myself.  I faint. Then I wake up and faint again.  If I don’t have the money to destroy my items, I sure don’t have the money to defend myself.

I write to the attorney for the rights holder and explain that they’ve got the wrong guy and tell them all the reasons and statistics and track record of my company, and ask them to drop the case.

They don’t, and the case progresses through the courts while I helplessly watch.

The attorneys wait until the case passes a point of no return to actually send me the evidence they have against me.  It’s a packet with photocopies of the Amazon receipt showing they bought the item from my user id on Amazon, the package they received, and the item in question, which turned out to be a brand new and sealed boxset from the TV show The Mentalist (or as my mother-in-law calls it, The Medalist).

As you might expect, I cannot tell anything from these copies. The copies are in black and white and I can not find anything wrong with the boxset.

I again write the attorney for the rights holder and tell him that I don’t see any evidence of counterfeit, that it was a new sealed item, and that we obviously can’t open new items and inspect them because they wouldn’t be new anymore.  They ignore me.

About a week later I had a dream.  I was on a brand new cruise ship with a brand new crew and I was staying in a brand new cabin. The weird part was that I couldn’t find my cabin because they were all brand new and they all looked the same.

Within 2 minutes of waking up, I literally said “holy s**t!” out loud.

The item was new.

Which means it probably wasn’t mine.

To explain,  Amazon.com FBA has a program called “co-mingling”.  What this means is that if you are in the program, and I am, if you send a new sealed item to FBA, you do not need to place an inventory sticker on it like to do for every other item you send to Amazon.  You don’t have to sticker it at all.  What Amazon does with your item is co-mingle it with all of the sellers of that item who are also in the program and Amazon’s own inventory and when they sell that item they pull a unit at random from their co-mingled stock.

In other words, the physical item I sent to Amazon may or may not have been the physical item the customer received! The item wasn’t mine.

This time I got the attorney on the phone.  I explained the situation to her, and she said “Mr Harmon, in California copyright law, we don’t have to prove that the item was yours - just that we bought the item from your user id on Amazon”.

So I called more attorneys, who were all willing to help me for $25,000. They would not verify what the rights holder’s attorney had told me, but they’d be happy to look it up for $25,000.

Ironically and suspiciously, a few days later my phone rang and it was an attorney from Amazon.  Finally! I could explain this to them and they would reopen my account and I could get back to selling again…

“I’m just calling to inform you that there were no other sellers of that item that were in the co-mingling program,” the attorney said. Oh crap - Amazon and the manufacturer/distributor were in cahoots.

“Ok. But Amazon had stock of that item, correct?” I replied.

“I’m just calling to inform you that there were no other sellers of that item that were in the co-mingling program,” the attorney said.

Mmmmmmmk.

Gang, I would love to be able to tell you that this story has a happy ending, but the fact is that I lost the court case.  I’m the proud owner of a giant fine that will bankrupt me.

The title of this article is “Third Party Sellers Need To Rethink The Amazon.com  FBA Program,” so let’s think through why I have said that:

1.  I was an Excellent rated seller on Amazon with 97% positive feedback.  We had never had a complaint for counterfeit, so the ratio stands at 169,013 to 1, or .00000592% . Amazon holds sellers to the highest standards in all of the 3rd party selling industry - that fact alone should have warranted some defense against this claim.  Yet Amazon just stepped aside and let a giant corporation obliterate me. I should also point out that the same company has sued over 80 other sellers in the same manner in the past 8 months.

2.  Once your product is at FBA, they’ve got you.  Amazon can raise fees on you, which they have done, and they can even implement fees that didn’t even exist when you sent them the items. A few years ago, Amazon implemented a new fee called a “long term storage fee” where they clobbered any seller with storage fees for items in Amazon’s warehouse for over a year.  That one cost me $50,000 in product I was forced to destroy.  As I’ve already explained, Amazon will charge you a fee to return your product or destroy it.

3.  For the love of all that’s holy, NEVER agree to use Amazon’s co-mingling program.  If you do, my situation proves that you are liable for other sellers products, not Amazon.

To prove my co-mingling point even further, I recently ordered Amazon to return some items to me so I can resell them and recover some fees.  When we sent out all of our items to the FBA program, they all went to 2 different Amazon warehouses.  Now that I’m receiving them back, guess what?  So far, the new sealed product has arrived back from 9 different warehouses.  Yep, they’re sending back someone else’s new sealed items to me.

This situation literally breaks my heart.  I was a HUGE proponent of Amazon’s FBA program for a long time.  I counseled other sellers to use it, I wrote about it, and I loved using it.  There are thousands of other FBA sellers out there, and I used to think about how smart we all were to outsource major components of our businesses to Amazon.

Now? Yeahhhh not so much.

Best,

Kevin Harmon

kevin@redshortsmedia.com

Kevin on Twitter

Kevin on Facebook:

Kevin on Linkedin:

I love to blog and work with social media.  Let me know if I can help you!

Starting a business out of your garage? Check out these insights!

You’ve heard about entrepreneurs who start their businesses in their garage and become true successes. What is their secret? Well, recently I found out about Pervaiz Lodhie. He started LEDtronics, Inc., www.ledtronics.com, in his garage with his wife, Almas, in 1983.

Today, he has a very successful business headquartered in Torrance, California providing LED (light-emitting diode) products worldwide and is known as the pioneer of LED lighting. I interviewed Pervaiz to get some of his inside secrets, and here’s what he had to say:

Tell us how you started your LED lighting business.

When I started testing and packaging LED’s almost 40 years ago I was a junior partner of Data Display Products started by my elder brother, Qamar Lodhie. At that time, there were really no LED solutions to replace the issues people were having with the old technology, incandescent or filament light-bulbs such as very short life, using too much energy, high heat, higher failures in shock and vibration conditions, etc.

To solve these problems, I started creating and packaging LED lights to replace the old, outdated miniature incandescent bulbs as simply as possible. The LED lights were used in control panels, elevators, lighted push-button switches on aircraft and ships, and on control indicators in power plants.

As the LED technology improved, I continued to improve the packages to become more widely used, and I also created additional applications for the LEDs where higher intensities, more pure colors and wider viewing angles were needed.

It sounds like you created LEDtronics by using your expertise to solve important lighting problems your customers were having. With this in mind, what was the biggest challenge you faced starting your business, and what did public relations have to do with overcoming it?

With an engineering background, I did not have the experience to market and find customers. Fortunately, one of the editors of Electronic Products approached me when I was first starting my business and wrote an article about the benefits of my LED products. That was probably the beginning of the revolution. When the article came out, engineers that were looking for that kind of a product suddenly sent requests, and we were immediately getting calls for the products.

Another key reason for my entrepreneurial success was that I looked at the issues and problems of others trying to start businesses. I didn’t want to fall into the trap of investing too much and paying interest for many years and then never being able to recover from it. I was going to start my business in a completely different way with my own money.

Right from the start, I wanted to become the GE of the LED light bulb industry. As I was creating a brand new niche with limited resources, I felt JIT, or the Just-in-Time model, was ideal for me. I developed, manufactured and shipped LED solutions Just-in-Time but at standard cost so there was no premium cost.

This allowed me to have very little inventory requirement, and we still follow this process today at LEDtronics. We carry all the necessary components and then put it together as the customer needs it because there are some common components that you can use. That just-in-time situation allowed me to start and grow my business without borrowing money.

What suggestions do you have for small business owners on how they can compete against large corporations in today’s market?

The concept or idea of the product they want to build must be equal or better than what the competition has. It must have equal or better pricing. It has to have features that the customers of the larger manufacturer identify as needed. It is crucial to have some advantage over the competition because they already have established customers with an existing business relationship, and customers do not easily move away from an already established and comfortable business relationship.

I think that many, new business people make these fundamental mistakes. They develop something today, and they don’t realize that it’s a work-in-progress. They must continue to improve that product and to design it in a way that cuts costs. This way, they can keep the price attractive and keep improving its functionalities in a way that the customer is looking for.

In the first couple of years of starting a business, it’s essential to keep reinvesting every single penny of profit back into the business to allow it to grow. However, just as their business is ready to take off, many new business owners get tired and burn out, and they run out of cash so they give up. Then, all their work is benefited by others.

That’s good advice Pervaiz. Is there anything else you’d like to share with the StartupNation audience?

I think new entrepreneurs should start a company with something they are very, very good at and have full knowledge about. Instead of being a Jack-Of-All-Trades, I took on the challenges that I felt were very easy because of my background and experience as an electromechanical engineer.

I believe the American dreams are still coming about. You just have to do all your ABC’s correctly and anticipate how long it will take your business to take off from the beginning. Have a vision and a picture of what and where you want to be in one year, two years, three years, fours years, etc. Then work towards them and stay focused.

Thanks so much for your great insights Pervaiz, and congratulations on your success!

Do you have a small-business success story you’d like to share with us? Please contact us here.

Does your business need content marketing?

There is a lot of buzz out there about “content marketing” and how it can make your business successful.

But what is content marketing, anyway?

It’s just a fancy name for using content to market to customers. And as I’ve said many times before, by providing value to your customers with good copy, or content, you create a more credible reputation. Plus, if you offer good content, people will want to tell their friends about your products and services.

Why use content marketing?

Ragan Communications offered a great article on why content marketing is important here. In the article, they list “24 stats about the importance of content marketing.”

For example:

“According to Roper Public Affairs, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.”

And per an article on “Engage the Blog,” research conducted by the Custom Content Council indicates that, “90% of consumers find custom content useful and 78% of people believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them.”

These are just a few of the many statistics out there about the importance of marketing with content and why copy is still king.

How do you use content marketing?

If you want to increase online sales and awareness fast, start writing some valuable content. Here is a good process to help you get started:

1. Figure out what your audience wants and what you want to accomplish with your content.
2. Write an article or blog about that information providing valuable tips and information. (If you are not a copywriter, hire one to do the work for you. They will help save you time and money and provide better results.)
3. Include your search engine optimization, or SEO, keywords in the headline and throughout the copy a few times.
4. Add a link at the end of your blog or article to a landing page on your site or a page where site visitors can get more information.
5. Track the results with Google Analytics or another program.
6. Repeat!

Content Marketing Works!

If you see this process is working (and it does when done correctly), create an editorial calendar for the year which spells out what topics you’ll be discussing and the kind of content you’ll be distributing (blogs, articles, tip sheets, videos, social media events, etc.).

By creating valuable content (especially with SEO) specifically for your target market, you will bring in new customers and stand out from the competition. For the best results, plan your content in advance and test different topics and methods for sharing your content.

It’s a lot of work to provide good copy on a regular basis. But if you hire experienced, SEO copywriters to help you with the entire process, you will see sales and customer loyalty increase.

What are you waiting for? Start providing great, SEO content marketing and see what happens!

For more information on SEO content marketing, please contact me at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

Insights on “Why ‘A’ Students Work for ‘C’ Students—and ‘B’ Students Work for the Government”

In an exclusive for StartupNation, Robert Kiyosaki, successful entrepreneur, investor and author of the #1 Personal Finance book of all time, “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” offered his insights related to his new book, “Why ‘A’ Students Work for ‘C’ Students—and ‘B’ Students Work for the Government.”

In regard to this financial education guide for parents, here’s what Robert had to say:

Why did you write this book?

I wrote “Why ‘A’ Students Work for ‘C’ Students” for parents because parents are a child’s first and most important teachers—and they have an important job to do. They can truly influence the future of their children, because if they don’t teach their kids about money, they can’t on the school system to do it. Schools teach kids what the school system believes they need to get a good job… which, from my point of view, sets them up to be slaves to a job and a paycheck all of their lives. My poor dad was a well-educated school teacher with a Ph.D., but I struggled in school. I didn’t get good grades and flunked out of high school—twice. In fact: I hated school. But I love to learn. Today, I (the “C” student) hire “A” students, like accountants and attorneys, to work for me.

The financial crisis has just started and as more countries and baby boomers go broke, who do you think will foot the bill for life-support? Your kids, that’s who. And it’ll take the form of higher taxes. That’s why I wrote this book. I want to encourage and support parents who want to give their child a financial head start in life. And it starts with understanding money.

Since the school system is not giving children a financial education, are they teaching our kids to be poor?

I think schools are teaching kids to be poor, but worse than that they’ve teaching them to be slaves to a paycheck. That could be one of the reasons why the dropout rate is so high in schools today. As a young kid back in the ‘50s and the ‘60s, I kept asking my teacher, “Why don’t you teach me anything about money?” I never got an answer to that question.

And today, most schools still don’t teach kids about money. Whether we’re smart or stupid, rich or poor; we all use money in our everyday lives. It’s an important life skill and it’s up to parents to fill the void.

We’ve got to teach our kids about money because the United States is broke. We’ve spent billions on public education, and poverty keeps increasing. The rich get richer, the middle class is getting squeezed harder and harder… and the poor are getting poorer and poorer. What’s wrong with this picture?

Then, do you think parents should train their children to be entrepreneurs?

Only a child can decide that. I wouldn’t decide that for them. I don’t think there’s anything more pathetic than some kid who does what his parents want him or her to do. Instead, give your kids some financial education and then they can make their own choices later on in life.

If your children do not have a financial education, then they will probably end up being an employee or a self-employed specialist. And today, employees pay at least 40% of their money in taxes and the self-employed pay about 60%. Meanwhile, people who own large businesses pay only about 20%, and investors with a high level of financial education and well-structured investments can often pay nothing—0%—in taxes. Very often the people who end up paying the most in taxes are the ‘A’ students who get out of school and become doctors, lawyers and attorneys.

Kids who have a financial education will have more choices in life and not be stuck working for someone else or living off government hand-outs.

What can a parent do to start giving their child a financial education?

I outline some specific activities—Action Steps for Parents—at the end of each chapter of the book, but the most important thing is to make your home an active and fun learning environment. And it doesn’t need to be difficult. You can play games like Monopoly® and CASHFLOW®, discuss the day’s news and learn new, financial vocabulary words each day.

Every day we make real-life decisions about money so start sharing this information with your children. For example, show them what happens when you don’t pay your bills, how tax payments are taken from your paycheck or how you plan for unexpected expenses. You can also help them set up their own small business to learn about money and investing firsthand.

The point is to teach your kids about money at home because they are not going to get a financial education in school.

Thanks so much for your time Robert!

For more information about Robert Kiyosaki’s new book, “Why ‘A’ Students Work for ‘C’ Students—and ‘B’ Students Work for the Government,” visit www.richdad.com.

By Melanie Rembrandt

For many years, it was very difficult to show the results of a public relations, or PR, campaign. After all, you could spend hours on the phone pitching media members and not see any results. Plus, due to the nature of public relations, no one can guarantee results (Hint – if you hear a PR person tell you that they can guarantee results – Run!).

The final say as to whether the media broadcasts or publishes your story is always up to the editors, producers and publishers out there. Basically, you have no control over the final outcomes of your pitching efforts or exactly what will be said about your company if a story does go live.

However, with today’s technology, you can see if a campaign is working or not and make the appropriate changes to save time and money. How?

3 Ways to Get Valuable Reports on Your PR Efforts

1. Start with a plan.

Instead of just sending out a press release because you have news, create a plan with goals. What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to bring more people to your site, increase sales, get more newsletter registrations, or something else?

Once you know what you want to accomplish, figure out how the press release fits into these goals along with your other, marketing efforts and how you are going to measure results.

2. Use specific links.

One way to measure the results of your PR activities is to take advantage of technology and have Google Analytics in place on your site (or another tool that tracks information about site visitors). Include a specific link in your press release or promotional copy. Have that link go to a specific landing page on your site that talks about your specific news. Then, have a link on that landing page that goes to a sales page, shopping cart page, newsletter registration page, etc. This way, you can track exactly how many people click on the link in your press release and on your landing page. And you can also see how many people actually take the actions you set up in your plan.

3. Use Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

All of your online copy should be optimized for the search engines. If not, you will lose online visibility to the competition. Plus, it’s a great way to track results of your PR efforts. For example, once you optimize your press releases, landing pages and other PR copy for the search engines, check the results. Does your information show up on the search engines for your top keywords? How do your rankings compare to competitors?

Get the PR and SEO Data You Need for Success!

Once your PR copy goes live, look at your Google analytics and search-engine results. Did you reach the goals you set in your initial plan? Did people click on your links and take the actions you wanted them to follow on your site?

If not, look carefully at the data and figure out what your site visitors clicked on most. Then, develop your next PR plan. But this time, make changes using what you learned from the data. Do the entire process again, and check your results. Over time, you’ll figure out what works best for your specific target audience. Then, you can start to take advantage of the PR and SEO copy and activities that work and avoid wasting time on those that are not.

Today, you can use online data to track exactly what your customers want to see and what your competition is doing. By having a plan, using SEO and strategic landing pages and links on your site, you can see specific results from your PR efforts.

For more information to help boost sales with SEO and PR, please visit www.rembrandtwrites.com.

Does this sound familiar when it comes to your SEO, or search engine optimization, efforts?

• You added a bunch of keywords to your site but haven’t seen an increase in site rankings.
• You paid a big, SEO company to help you, but you are still waiting for results.
• You have no idea what SEO is and are just ignoring it!

If any of these sound familiar, it’s time to review your SEO activities and concentrate on what is most important. After all, SEO can significantly increase sales if done correctly.

Important SEO activities include the following:

• Conduct extensive research to find the appropriate keywords for your business.
• Add different title tags and descriptions to each page of your site.
• Use your keywords in titles, subheads, links and appropriate places throughout your site.
• Create a process for obtaining back-links to your site.
• Measure the results and make appropriate changes for the best results.

And while these are all essential to SEO, you may be focusing on the “technology” rather than this one, key factor that can make or break your search-ranking results:

Provide Valuable Copy!

Today, the search engines look for sites that provide valuable information to their customers. They don’t want to see repetitive keywords and sales language. They want to see Websites that offer information customers want to tell their friends about.

With this in mind, your SEO activities should start with an editorial calendar. Write down exactly what kind of information you want to share with your customers and when. Then, write the copy, insert the appropriate keywords and add the back-end tagging. You’ll also want to create appropriate Web pages for each product or service and guide site-visitors through the purchasing process.

But that at this point, know that your SEO processes have just begun.

Now, you need to monitor clicks and interest in the new content. If your customers are clicking on the internal links, purchasing products and services and sharing the information via social media, you know your copy is working.

However, if you don’t see an interest in your new copy, change it or add content focusing on a different topic right away. If you have no idea what to write about, check your social-media venues to see what your customers are talking about and look at what your competition is doing. You can also add a quick survey to your site and actually ask customers what they want to see on your site!

SEO Should Increase Site Rankings and Save You Money

The great thing about SEO copywriting is that you can monitor your site analytics and clicks, and see exactly what your customers and site visitors are most interested in reading. And if some copy is not working, you can change it immediately. This way, you are always giving your customers what they want and providing value. (Note: If you are working with an SEO company that does not provide this information, you are missing out on some important opportunities to exceed customer needs!)

SEO Is Not About Technology.

It can be so easy to hire an SEO service to automatically optimize your copy as you write it. But that won’t help you increase sales and site rankings as much as possible. Instead, focus on the value you are providing your customers via your copy and monitor the results.

This way, you’ll get to know your customers and be able to give them what they want. And this will not only help you beat the competition, but the search engines will also notice the value, and your site rankings will skyrocket!

To find out more about SEO copywriting and how it can significantly increase sales, please write to us belo or visit www.rembrandtwrites.com for more information.

It’s Time For Website Spring Cleaning!

Now is the perfect time to give your Website a fresh, new look and do some spring-cleaning. But don’t worry! It doesn’t need to take a lot of time or money, Here are…

3 Tips to Freshen Up Your Site Fast!

1. Fix errors.

Yes, this may seem blatant, but you really need to review your Website for bad links, grammatical errors, misspellings, and old content.

Believe me, new site visitors will find even the smallest errors, and that could mean the difference between a new sale and a lost customer to the competition!

2. Add new copy.

If you haven’t updated your Website with a new blog entry, article, white paper, or other content for over a week, it’s time to add fresh and valuable information your customers will want to read.

And if you can optimize it for the search engines, even better!

3. Be newsworthy.

When was the last time you posted a press release or were mentioned in a local newspaper? If it has been more than a month, get to work!

Create a newsworthy event, write an SEO press release and let the media know you have news!

Freshen Up Your Site and See Results!

By taking a few, simple actions today, you can significantly increase online awareness, build credibility with new site visitors and get the media talking about you. And with these potential results, this is some Spring cleaning you’ll want to start right away!

For more information to increase site traffic and sales, write to Melanie below or visit www.rembrandtwrites.com.

I get many referrals from business owners who spent a fortune on a top, PR firm or search engine optimization, SEO, services without seeing any results. They spent a lot of money purchasing “well known” services, and now they are weary of hiring another professional to help them.

Don’t Let This Happen To You!

Just because you hire a “top name” in PR or SEO services does not mean you will get results. But if you are an entrepreneur, you just don’t have time to babysit the consultants that you hire. With this in mind, here are….

3 Questions to Discover if You Are Getting Ripped Off with SEO and PR Services

1. Are you seeing results?

Is your PR and SEO consultant or services communicating with you on a regular basis? You should get a monthly report to see what is going on with your PR and SEO activities. If not, ask for one!

2. Have you been waiting a long time for things to happen?

Yes, it takes time to prepare a complete, public relations and SEO campaign. However, there are things your SEO and PR people can do right away to start generating online awareness and buzz. If it takes more than a month to see some kind of results, ask for a timeline of activities and why it is taking so long to get some online attention!

3. Are you paying for unknown services?

What exactly are you paying for? While it’s customary for PR agencies to be paid by retainer, make sure you are not paying for a huge mark-up on outside services like press-release-distribution services, SEO advertising, media research, and other services. Also, find out exactly who is working on your account. You may be paying for a big, well-known agency to do your PR, but if you have a new hire or intern working on your account, you are paying too much!

Get the Right Help.

Good publicists and SEO strategists often charge high rates for their services, but if they know what they’re doing, it’s well worth the money. After all, one, well-placed article can mean thousands in new sales, and one SEO press-release can introduce you to a worldwide audience of new customers. However, there are many people out there giving PR and SEO professionals a bad name.

With this in mind, review your current PR and SEO activities and know what is going on. If you aren’t seeing results, it’s time to ask questions and get answers. And if you have been ripped off by a PR or SEO service, please do not disregard these services for the future. Instead, conduct more due diligence and find new professionals who can actually help you meet your business goals. (Perhaps, you can ask them to start with a test project to reduce your risk and see how your working relationship develops.)

After all, if your competition is using public relations and SEO, and you aren’t, you could risk losing sales and valuable, new customers.

For more PR and SEO tips and information, please write to use below or visit www.rembrandtwrites.com.

Time to refresh your PR activities and take action

Woo Hoo! It’s finally spring and a time for fresh beginnings – for you and your business. Why not start this season by renewing your relationships with the media and telling targeted producers, editors and journalists about your company’s latest news?

But, what’s that? You say you don’t have any good news to share?

Nonsense! If you really don’t have anything to share, make your own news!

Here are 3 ideas to help you get your PR activities started…

1. Take part in a community event, or create your own.

Give something back and encourage others to do the same. You’ll help others in need while creating a newsworthy event.

2. Submit an opinion piece.

Write to your local newspaper, and provide your opinion about a published story or current, news item. This can help build credibility and awareness for your business when written in a positive manner.

3. Give a presentation.

Speak at a local, community college, business group or other organization attended by your target-audience members.

Provide valuable information without giving a sales pitch, and invite pertinent reporters. You’ll establish yourself as an expert and meet potential new customers while increasing your chances of obtaining media coverage.

Spring Forward!

Instead of waiting for potential customers and media members to notice your business, take action and create some publicity! It make take some time and effort, but just one, well-placed article can mean a significant increase in site traffic and sales!

What are you going to do this month to increase your PR activities?

If you need help, feel free to contact me at www.rembrandtwrites.com and check out the easy, do-it-yourself steps in “Simple Publicity.”