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Blog Redesign Priorities | Reader Survey

Posted on February 2, 2009

I’m getting ready to redesign this blog and I’m asking for your help. After writing over 550 blog posts, it’s safe to say I like what I’m doing.

But, do my readers? How can I make visiting this blog a better experience for them?

Click Here to take a quick blog redesign survey

Now that I’m ready to upgrade, I made this list of priorities. What’s missing? What changes would you like to see?

Blog Redesign Priorities

  1. Always on –find a host that can handle traffic
  2. Easy to remember – www.wiredprworks.com is redirected to the actual URL, http://barbararozgonyi-wiredprworks.com, a temporary [at the time-September 2007] URL. How will changing to the new URL affect my traffic and rankings? Is there a way to roll over my posts, should I start fresh? What’s the best way to move to a new URL?
  3. Is www.wiredprworks.com the best choice?
  4. Get a logo, a header and a headshot. Although I have a logo for my company, I don’t have one for the blog/publication.
  5. Establish an editorial calendar with guest interviews and monthly themes.
  6. Lower the bounce rate – do people think the site’s too plain or are they not finding what they’re looking for?
  7. Add places for product and service promotions so that readers can expand their knowledge.
  8. Clarify the calls to action in the post footer and in the sidebar, maybe add a popover?
  9. Upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.
  10. Show readers where to connect: twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
  11. Display most popular posts, recent posts and comments.
  12. Be memorable and welcoming – have a type of home page now, but is it working?
  13. Design based on usability – look at flow, pages and patterns.
  14. Make RSS feed more prominent.
  15. Reflect branding.
  16. Optimize search capabilities.
  17. Rank higher on Google.
  18. Invite first time readers to subscribe or add a header in each post with an invitation.
  19. Decide if the company site should be integrated with the blog.
  20. Partner with a designer who understands SEO, blogging, WordPress, affiliate marketing and ecommerce.   

That’s what I came up with, now let’s check in with the expert.

Here, Problogger Darren Rowse talks blog redesign and why first impressions matter – check out the way he changes his look in the beginning of the video.

 

How would you upgrade or enhance Wired PR Works?

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6 Comments - Posted in Marketing Blog

Email Marketing Course | Five Days to Better Email Results

Posted on December 5, 2008

It’s Friday. I just crossed the 2,100 mark update on twitter and decided to share this ecourse I wrote to go out to my MTN newsletter subscribers. Now, my newsletter wears the Wired PR Works brand. Sending out a sequenced system like this works with email providers like Aweber – affiliate link.

Hope you find it useful. Because the report is seven pages long, I’m only posting the outline and the day one sequence here. To read the entire course, click the link and read the report or print it out. Let me know what you think.

5 Day Email Marketing Transformations Course

Day One: Brand Your Identity

Day Two: Present Offers the Crowd Can’t Resist

Day Three: How to Trigger Rapid Response

Day Four: Grow Your Own Groupies

Day Five: Measure What Works

Day 1/5 Email Marketing Transformations: Brand Your Identity

Welcome to day one of your Email Marketing Transformations. I’ll be checking in with you every day for the next five days.

Today’s topic is selecting a sender name that gets you noticed, brands your product or service and communicates who you are immediately.

If you’re like most email readers, the first thing you do when you open your inbox is scan the list of sender’s names. You want to know right away who’s trying to get your attention.

This may seem like a simple lesson – it is – yet, choosing and using your sender email address is your first step to marketing your business, products or your services online successfully.

So, let’s start with the basics . . .

What is a sender name and how does it differ from my email address?

The sender name is the name you select in Outlook and other email interface tools that identifies the message source. So, depending on which account I’m using, you’ll see emails coming from -

Barbara Rozgonyi – or Barbara Rozgonyi CoryWest – or Barbara Rozgonyi Wired PR Works.

Up until a few months ago, I used CoryWest, which worked to brand my company and make us look bigger, but carried no personal connection. New contacts often called me Cory, not Barbara, because they were recognizing the email sender name as my name.

But I didn’t know how confusing this really was until someone confessed that they were having trouble distinguishing between Cory and Barbara in the minds. So, I decided to add my name to my company name. Now, users get more clarity when they communicate with our parent company.

Members of the Marketing Transformations Network may not come directly in contact with CoryWest, but they will know get to know me. That’s why they see – Barbara Rozgonyi MTN – in the sender line.

So, what would I advise you to do?

If you own a company, request that everyone who communicates from your email system use at least their first, and preferably also their last name, along with the company name. For example, Michael Regent Accounting Pros tells you who from Accounting Pros is trying to reach you.

If you’re self-employed or promoting a product, you can test different sender names like “Time Saver” or “Beauty Secrets” or “Money Manager.” This marketing tactic may either draw in readers or drive them away. That’s why we recommend testing sender names – you may even want to survey your top customers to see what they respond to.

How do you set up a sender name?

In Outlook, go to accounts and enter the name you want to use. Some email hosts will not offer this option – they will only allow you to select an email address. If that’s the case, always use a domain based email address. For example, if your site is www.wowdowehaveideas.com and your name is Beth, then a possible email address could be beth@wowdowehaveideas.com. This way, every time you give out your email address, you promote your business.

1 Comment - Posted in Marketing Blog Tagged with: ,

Top Marketing Content Blogs | Junta 42 Releases Rankings

Posted on November 16, 2008

Another site, another ranking system for top marketing blogs- they’re all the same, right? Well, no.

Junta42’s top marketing blog list is different than most out there. It’s based on content. Want to know what makes great content? Read Junta42’s Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing.

Here’s why and here’s what I like about this ranking system, borrowed from their press release:

The Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs stood out for their commitment to covering the issues at the heart of content marketing. Unlike other top blog lists that focus on solely traffic and popularity, the Junta42 team reviews each blog individually on the basis of the following: 1) Relation to the field of content marketing, 2) Reader Value, 3) Junta42 Member Rank, 4) Regularity and 5) Google page rank.

This quote comes directly from Junta42’s press release announcing the latest list of top marketing blogs; Online Marketing Blog replaces Copyblogger as the number one marketing content blog. 

Wired PR Works comes in at number 64 on the list of 187 blogs.

You can vote for your favorite blogs by joining and then “hitching” or clicking on each one.

Think your marketing blog belongs on the list? Submit your blog to Junta42 for consideration.

What makes great content – to you?

Addition to original post . . . .
Here is the complete Top 42:

1 Online Marketing Blog

2 Copyblogger

3 Writing on the Web

4 Influential Marketing Blog

5 Web Ink Now

6 Marketing with Meaning

7 Nigel Hollis

8 Conversation Agent

9 Buzz Marketing for Technology

10 Post Advertising

11 Conversation Marketing

12 Marketing Interactions

13 PR 2.0

14 Nick Burcher

15 The Toadstool

16 Servant of Chaos

17 Chaos Scenario

18 No man is an iland

19 What’s Next

20 Buzz News

21 Be the Voice

22 Really Practical Marketing

23 Bringing Brands to Life!

24 ContentMarketingToday

25 Hard Knox Life

26 Web Strategy by Jeremiah

27 Drew’s Marketing Minute

28 JournaMarketing

29 Writing White Papers

30 Seth’s Blog

31 Greg Verdino’s Marketing Blog

32 100% Original

33 EyeCube

34 Find and Convert

35 Techno//Marketer

36 Eat Media Blog

37 Conversational Media Marketing

38 Emerson Direct Marketing Observations

39 Internet Marketing Blog

40 Feed Growth!

41 Daily Fix

42 Occam’s Razor

 

 

1 Comment - Posted in Marketing, Marketing Blog

How to Sell Direct Advertising on Blogs | BlogWorld08

Posted on September 29, 2008

sell-ads-blogs-panel-bwe08

Interested in what happened at BlogWorld? During the sessions, I sent out what amounted to a 15 page Word document, which added up to over 300 updates. This post covers How to Sell Direct Advertising on Your Blog with Steve Hall, David Peralty, Wendy Piersall, Dave Taylor and Lynn Truong.

You’ll find all of my BlogWorld08 twoverage [tweet +coverage] here.

Thanks to those of you who asked me to share these updates.

Reader’s Guide: Each line represents a live update made on @wiredprworks on twitter.com. Reporting is in reverse order; so start at the end and read your way up. Note that this is exactly what I typed during the session, misspellings and all. When you see @name, this means that the person who was talking may be found on twitter.com/name. Apologies in advance for any inaccuracies.

Did you go to BlogWorld? Please share your takeaways and resources in the comments section.

During the session, Lynn Terry of Clicknewz captured the video of Dave Taylor of Ask Dave Taylor talking about ad sales. Visit Lynn’s blog to read her ad sales for bloggers session recap.

 

Want to see more video? Watch Wendy Piersall of Sparkplugging.com interview Dave Taylor on how to sell blog advertising.

How to Sell Direct Advertising on Blogs BlogWorld08 Session Notes by Barbara Rozgonyi @wiredprworks on twitter.com

ask: what would have to happen in order for you to advertise with me? if advertiser rejects you @emom #bwe08

•

text link ads – don’t do it!!!! #bwe08

•

@Ribeezie – sharing all my #bwe08 tweets/notes here: http://tinyurl.com/4gynkh (expand ) :)

•

suziecheel: Retweet @wiredprworks: oiopublisher $37 WP plugin makes ads easy #bwe08 @johnchow recommened this yesterday sounds good

•

sometimes advertisers don’t care about stats, heard 5K/day, but cheesehead sold site for $100k w/100 visitors/day @emom #bwe08

•

the question is never how much something costs, it’s always how much it’s worth and what you offer @davetaylor #bwe08

•

read 2-3 others blogs in your area bigger than you, pick up the ads and call their advertisers, prove you’re better @stevehall #bwe08

•

oiopublisher $37 WP plugin makes ads easy #bwe08

•

today’s theme is laziness : ) ads #bwe08

•

make it as brain dead easy as possible for advertisers to buy from you @emom #bwe08

•

@emom blogosphere is co-opition not competition #bwe08

•

publishing google analytics gives information to competitors,think about the trade-offs, fill out a form for a rate card @davetaylor #bwe08

•

KimDushinski: This panel on selling ads is awesome. I’m tootired to tweet it. But @MariSmith @wiredprworks and @lynnterry still going strong. #bwe08

•

action steps: google adsense code, explore ad networks rubicon, put rate card on site-have info there, quantcast #bwe08

•

@davetaylor likes to go to consumer electronics trade shows, it’s about building an audience #bwe08

•

we should all go to affiliate summit for ways to monetize @stevehall #bwe08

•

created a whole new blog network to get ppl taking about epson @emom, #bwe08, found a content partner that ppl can believe in

•

@emom is here w/whole team thanks to epson, went to a conference & made a connection at blogher #bwe08

•

allocate boxes on your site for banner ads, never have a space available sign on your blog @davetaylor #bwe08

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@davetaylor does well w/google adsense, focus on getting out there & building what you want to create, then do something alternative #bwe08

•

establish yourself as the expert, engage in the community, you want to become the go-to person @stevehall #bwe08

•

go out there and ask for what you want David Peralty @bwe08

•

ask ads for goals, budgets, time frame-not just ad sheet, better way to close the deal #bwe08

•

key idea, you can say where you want your blog to go, position yourself as a blogger in a space, then pitch cos @davetaylor #bwe08

•

carve out a tone and editorial voice @stevehall #bwe08

•

need to differentiate who your readers are for advertisers #bwe08

•

way easier to get approval for a $20K buy than a $1k buy #bwe08

•

lazy man’s guide to ad sales: set a price, 3 month min, don’t sell your soul @davetaylor #bwe08

•

@davetaylor sends companies #s from Google Analytics, ads pay a 3 mo min, not asking a huge amt #bwe08

•

you want to go beyond display advertising into partnerships #bwe08

•

synovate conference for startups, Lynn Truong went as press, gave them their media kit for wisebread, 50% clients #bwe08

•

find a professional to sell ads for you #bwe08

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@stevehall do a readership study, define by age, sex, buyer preferences #bwe08

•

have to make sure you’re measuring clicks and tracking, great for helping you sell ads later on, 9/10 advertisers will not track #bwe08

•

wiredprworks: in ad sales session @emom leading ros=run of site #bwe08

Ad Sales for Bloggers Panelists

Steve Hall, @stevehall

Dave Taylor, @davetaylor

Wendy Piersall, @emom

David Peralty, @davidcubed

Lynn Truong, @wisebread

 

2 Comments - Posted in Marketing Blog Tagged with: ,

Fall Classes: Nonprofit Marketing Research & Strategy, Podcasts & Blogs

Posted on August 3, 2008

academyfornonprofit

The gist of the call that got me into a part-time faculty position at the Academy for Nonprofit Excellence went something like this . . .

The assigned instructor moved out of state. In three weeks, class starts. There is no set curriculum. You need to come up with 16 hours of teaching material for nonprofits that want to learn about marketing research, strategy and execution. Four people recommended you. Can you do it?

My response: uh . . . let me get back to you on that. Four weeks, four hours – that’s a lot of content. But, I’d already written most of it for a course I put together called The Success Summit Series: An entrepreneurial approach to branding, public relations and digital communication I created for the Chamber of Commerce in 2004.

Before I said yes, I retrieved the outlines from my hard drive and decided that I could update them quickly enough to present a class. Money was the next consideration. Part-time faculty members get compensated well, but not at a premium consulting. Would teaching be worth giving up that much consulting time? One friend said, “No way! Think of how much money you could make giving that time to clients.” She was right – about the money. But was this really about money or was it about something else, something I’d didn’t have the answer to yet?

Luckily, our client load was light enough for me to call back with a firm, but still cautious, yes. Walking into my very own college classroom and teaching my very own students felt not just good, it felt absolutely right. This May, I taught a blogging class for nonprofits where we hatched 13 brand new blogs. One of my former students said, “I signed up when I saw you would be teaching.”

This fall, I’ll be teaching two nonprofit management classes at The Academy for Nonprofit Excellence.

Nonprofit—Marketing
MARKETING RESEARCH AND STRATEGY #101. Gain a comprehensive overview of the marketing process and the skills needed to increase the effectiveness of marketing techniques in your nonprofit organization. $175
CCGE. CODE# 15600. W, 8:30 A.M. TO 12:30 P.M.
Above Class Only – Meets 4 Weeks, Starts Week Of 9/22

Nonprofit—Podcasts and Blogs
PODCASTS AND BLOGS #302. Discover how your association can generate real returns by learning to use media effectively. Drum up interest in your next event, build meeting attendance, grow your membership and create a year-round learning process. $175
CCGE. CODE# 15717. W, 8:30 A.M. TO 12:30 P.M.
Above Class Only – Meets 4 Weeks, Starts Week Of 10/27

Register for nonprofit marketing or nonprofit podcasts and blogs classes.

 

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