Author: Dan Morris

This author has written 644 articles

How to do the rel=author thing

The rel=author thing is pretty cool. It’s not necessarily new but Google has made it more fun and useful. And since they got rid of the indented listing, the rel=author thing is the next best search results promotion tool.

So what is it? Simply put, rel=author is an html tag you can add to your webpages and posts to link yourself, as the author, to your Google + Profile where more information can be found out about you. But the big benefit is the addition of the Google + profile photo embedded right there on the search results page.It really catches your eye and can make your search results position be the #1 traffic “getter”, even if you’re #4 on the page.

Step 1: Google Plus

You’re going to need a Google+ Profile page. So head on over to Plus.Google.com to get your page and profile set up. Of course the more complete you fill out the more information Google knows about you as an author. So attempt to answer all the questions. (more…)

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The Sales Pitch: Part of the Consumer Buying Process?

Hearing the Sales PitchI once read a post on SavvyBlogging.net titled “Ditch the Pitch”, which made me wonder more about the role of the sales pitch in the consumer buying process?  I wouldn’t ever advise getting rid of the pitch because the pitch generates the sale. But I would say the author makes some valid points about the sophistication of consumers.

Crystal Collins, the author of “Ditch the Pitch” insists that we’re now so socially savvy we can see a sales pitch from a mile away. I totally agree with that, in fact I use that to my advantage and try to look at everything from the view point of the other side. I’m always wondering “what is their motivation in this arrangement” thus when is the pitch?

While I’m sort of against being victim to the hard sell pitch, I know first hand that it works very well a great deal of the time. Having spent the last 8 years in the infomercial world, I’ve seen up-to-the-second tracking on our TV infomercials and can compare that to the incoming sales call log. We can track at what second during the show a person calls and compare that to what they just heard. 9 times out of 10 it’s the sales pitch that starts the phone ringing. (more…)

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Make Photos Go Viral on Pinterest

I thought it would be hard to figure out how to make photos go viral on Pinterest, but I was wrong. It’s fairly easy.  I’m not about to tell you that this is the only way to make an image go viral, because you’ll surely be able to point to another way someone else made their photo go viral on Pinterest. But you can check the “most popular pins” on Pinterest category at any time, you’ll find they all follows these rules:

Pretty

This rule is going to sit all by itself because if it’s pretty, people are going to repin it. That’s everything from a tree lined street to a fabulous bow window. But pretty doesn’t mean viral. It will certainly be repinned, but it takes more than “pretty” to get 30,000 repins.

Clarity

The image needs to clearly be about one thing. Not only that, but the caption needs to be in sync with that one thing. A beautiful sunset overlooking the harbor is great. But that won’t go viral if the caption is “I would love to be drinking a smoothie”. Cute, but that clarity isn’t there.

Take a look at this summer-y sangria looking drink. Beautiful picture of the drink. And the caption makes it even better. You look at the picture and say “that looks awesome” but then you read the caption and say “ooh I gotta pin this so I can make this later”. (more…)

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Shazam and QR Code Marketing

QR Code Marketing was just the beginning of what mobile marketing has to offer small businesses. Did you know that there is an audio version of QR Codes now as well? In fact Calvin Klein stores partnered up with the iPod app Shazam to play customized music in their stores. Customers would then get discounts if they used Shazam to scan, tag and share the songs. And that’s in addition to all of the other mobile marketing options like Foursquare and Scvngr, too.

So my question is do Shazam Marketing or QR Code Marketing make any sense?  What are the pros and cons of using this new medium? (more…)

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