Who Has Time For All This?
July 15th, 2007 | by Mitchell Allen |A few days after Thanksgiving, 2005, I wrote the following post. I don’t agree with it any longer, because of the advent of the authority site mentality. This current thinking states that you will get more traffic by being a magnet than you will by being a cattle chute. I certainly believe that the combination of social networking, coupled with Google’s own assertion that the aforementioned is true, makes the authority site concept an important element that we ignore at our peril.
After reading the vintage post, please tell me which seems like more work: creating an authority site or steering targeted audiences through a maze of e-mails, forums and article repositories to reach a site which may, or may not be worth the trip.
Viral marketing is the fancy phrase for word-of-mouth advertising. If you’ve ever presented an opportunity (or sat in on one), you probably told your guests that they don’t have to sell, they just tell their friends about your product or service. While your guests may have been downright skeptical, you know it’s true. that’s why your belief system shoots up sky-high after closing a few sales. The question is, how can you use the internet to generate word of mouth advertising?
Well, the first thing you have to do is stand up and be noticed. To do that with today’s internet, that means you have to write. You do not have to have a fancy website (check out www.tangeloideas.com). The simple reason is that, if nobody knows about your website, there will be no one to say, “Ooh, what a pretty web site!” Writing is what gets you noticed.
The second thing you have to do is figure out what to write about. Hint: it’s not your product or service. Write tangentially to your product. For example, if you sell cosmetics, you could write about self-esteem. If your product is beef jerky, you could write about hiking. Whatever topic you choose, make sure that you can write on and on about it with enthusiasm. Your personality will shine through and something magical will happen: your readers will start to like you. Once that happens, your readers will start to talk about you. “Guess what Sandy wrote at the end of her message? She said, ‘ When you find a dream inside your heart do not ever let it go…for dreams are the tiny seeds from which tomorrow grows.’ Isn’t that adorable?”
You’ve got buzz!
The third thing you have to do is figure out where to write and how often to do so. I believe that you should write to all of the following places:
- Your website
- Your newsletter
- Your blog
- A forum appropriate to your topic
- An article archive
You don’t have to place the same copy into all of these places, but do write something to each one. If you diligently write every day, you will create your own buzz.
What not to do:
Do not pay anyone to write your articles. You can’t become an expert if you don’t do the work.
Do not email your articles to anyone who is not on your opt-in list.
Do not post your articles without providing a link to your website.
Do not write for two days and then quit. Keep writing!
I look forward to your comments!
