In Case You Missed It: My Most Important Issue Ever!

In case you missed it... This is one of my most important (and most requested) issues I've ever written.  Although with the holidays and vacations summer brings, some folks have missed it. Heard about it from friends and colleagues, and have been emailing me asking for a copy.   So I decided to resend this compelling issue, again, with hope that all subscribers get to read it this time. If you read it already, read it again. I'm sure you'll discover something you didn't catch the first time. I also added a few new insights for added value and timeliness.   If you missed the original issue, please check this out. I can't stress enough how important content marketing, social marketing and search engine marketing is ... especially in today's online world.   All marketers, publishers and business owners owe it to themselves to get the most information as possible on the subject matter to increase visibility and ROI. Enjoy (again)!      Yours for success and profits,    Wendy Montes de Oca, MBA ~President, Precision Marketing and Media, LLC. ~Publisher, Precision Marketing eNewsletter ~Bestselling Author, Content Is Cash:  Leveraging Great Content and the Web for Increased Traffic, Sales, Leads and Buzz [Que Publishing, 2011, Paperback] ~Blogger, MuscleMarketing(dot)Blogspot.com

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What Social Sites Should YOU Be Using?: The Who, Why and How You Need To Know! Most people know about mega-popular social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. However, I get a lot of questions about other, underutilized sites that are on the tipping point of mass popularity-specifically, how these sites can be leveraged for marketing purposes.     But before I go into that, I'd like to clarify the differences between various "social"-type sites: Social bookmarking, news and tagging are sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious and Pinterest. These websites allow users to "bookmark" things they like-content, images, videos, websites-and allow others in the community to see what's been bookmarked and "follow," if they wish. This is the epitome of viral marketing and community interaction. When groups of people are like-minded, it's fun and easy to share feedback of things of common interest. For business purposes, it's also a strong way to bond with your audience through content, news and images that are synergistic and leverage those interests for increased website traffic and more. Social networking sites are communities like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. It's a way for groups of people to meet and stay in touch with each other, for personal and professional purposes. People can friend, follow or fan someone based on affiliation or interest. Another new site is Quora.com, which is a social question and answer site. Users can view by category and post questions or answers on virtually any business-related topic. Social media refers to sites like Youtube, Flicker or Tumblr, where groups of users share media content such as video, audio or pictures (photos). There's also new sites like Spotify.com, which are social music sharing sites, where users can listen to mp3 files themselves, as well as with friends, via Facebook. The following are some social sites that you may want to include in your online marketing mix as well as some other tactical tidbits: Pinterest.com is a social community where users "pin" (think of a bulletin board) things that they like. Quite simply, it's a virtual pin board. Users can re-pin (which promotes viral marketing) or follow someone with the same interest. Pinterest is a fun site because it focuses on the visual element. You can leverage your keyword-rich content when you add your descriptive text to your "pin." In addition, Pinterest asks for your URL, which will be a back-link to that webpage. This will encourage search engine marketing, branding and webpage traffic. Pinterest uses graphics, images (pics) and video pictures. And that's what will grab community members' attention, along with well-written descriptive text.   Important Tip! For marketing purposes, you can use Pinterest to promote your business or websites related to your business, such as landing pages, squeeze pages, product pages and more. What's important to know is that if your website, or the webpages you're thinking of pinning are flash (dynamic) webpages, you will be unable to "pin" it, as there's no static images on a flash page for Pinterest to "grab" for posting.   So if you're thinking about using testing Pinterest in your social marketing plan, make sure to pick websites or modify your own webpages to be graphic-, image- or video-rich. Also, like any marketing tactics you're testing, make sure it's in sync with your overall marketing plan and target audience. If you're target audience is an older crowd, then this may not be the best website, or channel, to reach them. Quora.com is a great online resource community of questions and answers. If you want to reinforce yourself as an expert, you can search questions related to your area of expertise and post responses that are useful, valuable and actionable. If you have a legitimate question about any topic, you can post by category and view replies from others who may be versed in that field. Quora is a great way to create visibility for yourself. As well, it allows you to upload relevant back-links which encourage website traffic and link-building. Important Tip! It's important to keep a steady presence on Quora. Stick to your areas of expertise (categories and topics). Make sure you have a keyword rich descriptive bio about yourself and include back-links to relevant websites. As with most all search, social and content marketing strategies-relevance and usefulness is key. All of these things help with credibility and branding. In addition, Quora's pages are indexed by search engines and do appear in organic search engine results pages (SERPs). That, in and of itself, can expand your reach and visibility, which can lead to increased website traffic, which can then be parlayed into leads or sales. Digg.com.com is one of my favorite content bookmarking sites. You can upload content "snippets" or news nuggets. The site will also pull in any images and well as back-links appearing on the same page as your content. Content can be given a "category," so that the right readers will find it. The more popular your content (number of "digs"), the more people in the community it gets exposed to. Viral marketing and traffic generation (to the source website in the "digg") are typical outcomes from this website. Reddit.com is a similar site, which allows users to upload a content excerpts (article, video, picture) and link to the full version. This is a great site to increase your market visibility and extend reach. It's also a powerful platform to drive website traffic.   Important Tip! Use content that is "UVA"-useful, valuable and actionable, something newsworthy and/or interesting to your target reader. It's very important to have a strong, eye-catching or persuasive headline that people in the community will want to read. There's so much background noise on Digg that you want your content/headline to jump out at the reader. Also, include a back-link in the body copy you are uploading. This will help with branding, link-building and traffic generation. With Reddit, your content excerpt space is limited, so make sure to pick content that will not only resonate with the target audience, but also screams out to the reader to "click here" to read more. Then link to your full article, which should be posted on an inside page of your website.  Google+. Google Plus is Google's attempt at social networking. It's not as popular ... yet ... as behemoth Facebook (900 million users as of April 2012), but it's got "teeth," at around 90 million users. And because it's Google, there's some great search-friendly benefits built right in. For example, it's indexed by Google, so your messages can get found faster. This helps with search engine visibility and website traffic. Important Tip! For business purposes, you can share relevant information and personalize your "social" circles; thereby, targeting your message better for each group. It's easy to share and rank (a combination of Digg and Facebook) content such as posts and messages. And there's also a variety of sharing options like content, video, photos (similar to Pinterest, Flickr and YouTube). With social marketing, it's a matter of matching the content type to the most synergistic platform and audience. Social marketing may not be for every business. But I believe it's certainly worth a strategic test. Just remember an old copywriting rule of thumb, which is "know your audience." If you know who your target reader (prospect) is, then you can craft enticing messages and pick social platforms where those prospects are likely to congregate. Most any social marketing site can be leveraged for marketing and business purposes. But make sure to keep your messages fun, entertaining, engaging and interactive. Because, after all, that's what the "social" in "social marketing" is all about

Reader Questions On Content Syndication, Duplicate Content and Back-Links As a subscriber you've likely read about the SONAR Content Distribution Model and how it uses quality, original content through strategic, synchronized and targeted distribution on organic online channels. Readers of my ezine as well as my book, Content Is Cash, often email me questions about 'SONAR marketing' and I thought it would be helpful to publish these real-life questions, as it may be something that was on your mind. So here goes... Q:  Do I have repurpose the original content every time I add it to a new SONAR site or do it only by individual SONAR categories?    A: Yes. Your original 'catalyst content' should be the source content that goes to your in-house audience first (i.e. blog, email), then you should take that source and repurpose and reuse it -- adapting it accordingly -- to each SONAR site you disseminate it to as well as for each target audience within those select SONAR site. SONAR's key is using quality, original, content that is useful, valuable, and actionable.  For each site/audience, you can repurpose it in many ways: --add new sentences, remove sentences --add/change headlines, subheadings and intro copy --change closing paragraph/call to action --modify bullets, mix them up, or add/delete to existing ones A press release of your repurposed version is a completely different format as the original source. It's written in third person and using quotes. It also should have a headline that is newsworthy and gets readers attention quickly. This version is different from a version that is, let's say, used in article marketing (article) or in social networking sites (content blurbs) -- yet all of these uses originated from the same source. Q: If I have two Social media bookmarking sites, like Digg and Reddit, do I have to repurpose the article for each site or use the same content for the SONAR Social Media Bookmarking sites? A: Yes, but it doesn't have to be heavy edits. You may change headline and add/remove sentences or paragraphs based on each audience and headline being used. It needs to be relevant and make sense to your target reader. That's what makes SONAR unique -- it's targeted and relevant -- it also leverages high quality content and is uploaded to synergistic website's where that audience would find it relevant. Q: Wouldn't Google pick up that the back-link found in each repurposed articles as the same link as the original content and declare them the same? Read my blogposts (below) on what is duplicate content and what isn't. If you target the content for each audience and repurpose it -- as long as it's quality content, relevant to each site and audience, and are on different domains -- it's not duplicate content or spam.  Your press release is targeted for one audience type; and your article marketing or social marketing blurb is targeted to another audience.  Google's updates like Farmer, Panda and Penguin are targeting sites that use irrelevant links, poor quality content and that are spammy.  SONAR's uses are relevant to each audience/site it's on. It's not the same article over and over again, it's repurposed and modified. It's also not on the same domain -- it's all over the web in targeted locations that you're hand selecting.       I like to mix up back-links as well. So some repurposed versions may link back to your source content. For example, your online press release may link back to the press release on your website or blog in the 'Press' or 'Media' section of your website; I also put in two other links in my press releases (in the About Us section, including social media account and free ezine sign up page -- for lead gen purposes). Your article (full or excerpt) may link back to the original article in your 'Newsletter archives' section. Your social media blurbs may link to 'Newsletter article', home page', or 'ezine sign up page', and so on.   Your links should be strategically chosen based on your call to action Extra reading: http://www.musclemarketing.blogspot.com/2012_03_18_archive.html  http://www.musclemarketing.blogspot.com/2012_05_06_archive.html

SONAR Marketing: More Comprehensive and Targeted Than Content Marketing Alone (Really!) Here's a great article about content marketing, from a strategic standpoint with SEO. http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2186953/Why-Content-Marketing-is-a-Great-SEO-Strategy-Not-a-Short-Term-Tactic?wt.mc_ev=click&WT.tsrc=Email&utm_term=&utm_content=Why%20Content%20Marketing%20is%20a%20Great%20SEO%20Strategy%2C%20Not%20a%20Short-Term%20Tactic&utm_campaign=06%2F26%2F12%20-%20SEW%20Daily&utm_source=Search%20Engine%20Watch%20Daily&utm_medium=Email It's important to note, especially to the naysayers of content marketing, that SONAR marketing and the SONAR Content Distribution Model are similar to content marketing, but more comprehensive and targeted ... it's like content marketing on steroids. SONAR is organic and combines SEO/SEM, social marketing, viral marketing, online PR, and more.  It's just as effective as article/content marketing, only better. And it incorporates the same staple strategies as search engine marketing and keyword selection. Of course, the major difference is that it's a systematic, synchronized methodology. Quite simply, SONAR is a manual way of disseminating quality, re-purposed content on the Web in targeted, strategic locations based on audience, website objectives, content, and SEO keywords. The key to success with SONAR is to truly educate your marketers and SEO folks on it's core principals and how to deploy it properly. It's proven. It's organic (free). It uses high quality content for natural relevant back-links. And it hasn't been negatively affected by search engine algorithm updates like Farmer/Panda, and recent, Penguin. If done correctly, SONAR will work and make a difference to your site's traffic and visibility. If you or your SEO folks have questions about SONAR and how it can be, and should be used correctly, to get the most out of YOUR high quality content, feel free to drop me an email at support@precisionmarketingmedia.com.

You Heard It Hear First... Recently, I did a wonderful and informative interview with LA-based radio host, Rey Ybarra or NewMediaRadioHour. We chatted about my SONAR Content Distribution Model as well as social marketing, duplicate content, Google updates, content creation, and more! I really think it's a 'must listen to' for any marketer, entrepreneur or business owner. To hear the full interview, visit: http://newmediaradiohour.com/author-interviews/content-is-cash-author-wendy-montes-de-oca-m-b-a/   Enjoy!

Get The Latest, Up-To-The-Minute Free Marketing Issues On My Facebook Page And Blog!   Wanna get the best marketing info and read it anytime, 24/7?   Then 'Like' my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Precision-Marketing-Media-LLC/139310392787888, become a free blog 'member' at http://www.musclemarketing.blogspot.com/ or get my free blog feeds at http://musclemarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.   It's easy and you won't miss a thing. Visit my Facebook and Blog page today!

See What All The Buzz And Accolades Are About...     If you haven't read my book, the former #1 Amazon web marketing bestseller, Content Is Cash. You really should check it out. You can read free chapter excerpts here: http://www.amazon.com/Content-Cash-Leveraging-Increased-Biz-Tech/dp/0789741083.      Content Is Cash: Leveraging Great Content and the Web for Increased Traffic, Sales, Leads and Buzz [Que Publishing, Paperback], which in less than 10 hours skyrocketed to #5 in Amazon's Internet Marketing book category as well as #3 in Amazon's Hot New Releases. Content Is Cash has been an Amazon bestseller for over 10 weeks. It's gotten 4 out of 5 stars and 42 reviews. On Sept. 26 it hit #1 for 'Internet Marketing' and #13 in 'Business & Culture' books. Content Is Cash has also been featured by Newsmax.com and Target Marketing Magazine as recommended reading for web marketing and business enthusiasts. It was also named 'Hot Reads for Marketers' by Websitemagazine.com as well as '25 Top-Selling Ecommerce Books in August 2011' by Practicalecommerce.com.  Quick Links... http://twitter.com/#!/PrecisionMktg    http://www.musclemarketing.blogspot.com http://www.precisionmarketingmedia.com/ http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Florida/Precision-Marketing-Media-LLC/139310392787888 https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Content-Is-Cash/262572457102646 https://www.facebook.com/WendyMontesDeOcaMBA (new! author fan page)   Like what you've read? Feel free to retweet it on Twitter! RT @PrecisionMktg

SONAR Marketing, More Comprehensive and Targeted Than Content Marketing Alone!

Here's a great article about content marketing, from a strategic standpoint with SEO.


http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2186953/Why-Content-Marketing-is-a-Great-SEO-Strategy-Not-a-Short-Term-Tactic?wt.mc_ev=click&WT.tsrc=Email&utm_term=&utm_content=Why%20Content%20Marketing%20is%20a%20Great%20SEO%20Strategy%2C%20Not%20a%20Short-Term%20Tactic&utm_campaign=06%2F26%2F12%20-%20SEW%20Daily&utm_source=Search%20Engine%20Watch%20Daily&utm_medium=Email

It's important to note, especially to the naysayers and 'haters', that SONAR marketing and the SONAR Content Distribution Model is similar to content marketing, but it's more comprehensive and targeted-- it's like content marketing on steroids. It's organic and combines SEO/SEM, social marketing, viral marketing PR, and more.

It always amazes me when SEO people don't get SONAR, when it's really not a hard strategy to grasp...it's just as organic and effective as article/content marketing, just better.

And of course, the major difference is that it's a systematic, synchronized method of disseminating repurposed content on the Web based on audience, website and SEO keywords.

Most, if not all, SEO folks don't have issue with content marketing (especially using hi-quality, relevant content)...so I don't understand the confusion about SONAR.


It's proven. It's organic (free). It uses hi-quality content for natural relevant backlinks. And it hasn't been negatively affected by search engine algorithm updates like Farmer/Panda, and recent, Penguin.

You Heard It Hear First...

Recently, I did a wonderful and informative interview with LA-based radio host, Rey Ybarra or NewMediaRadioHour.

We chatted about my SONAR Content Distribution Model as well as social marketing, duplicate content, Google updates, content creation, and more!

I really think it's a 'must listen to' for any marketer, entrepreneur or business owner.

To hear the full interview, visit:

http://newmediaradiohour.com/author-interviews/content-is-cash-author-wendy-montes-de-oca-m-b-a/

 

Enjoy!

Check Your Backlinks...

Since Google's latest update, Penguin, targets low quality, irrelevant, spammy websites and links (which we'll call 'bad links'), it's prudent to check your own website's back-links to ensure those who are linking to your are relevant and synergistic to your own site's content.

To do this you can use several free back-link checkers, such as http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/, http://www.backlinkwatch.com/, or http://www.iwebtool.com/backlink_checker .  

Then, go down the list and see who's linking to you. This may be laborious, but well worth it. Especially if you noticed your traffic and SERP precense drop in the last few weeks, you may have speculated that Penguin is to blame.

Next, it's literally a manual process of visiting the 'bad link's' website and contacting them to remove the link going to your site. If there's several 'bad links', it's best to create a form letter. According to searchenginewatch.com, the letter should state that you are a website owner trying to recover from a Google penalty and would like the following links removed. Then, list the URLs where the links can be found, the URL on your site they point to, the anchor text ─ all the info needed to easily find the link you're requesting removed.

Sometimes, it's easy to find contact information of 'bad links', you simply visit the site and can find email or similar information in the footer or 'Contact Us' area of the website.

Other times it's harder, and you may need to engage in some free tools to help determine a 'bad link's' website owner. According to searchenginewatch.com, such tools are:

• Domaintools.com: If you want to find out who owns the site your link is on, visit domain tools or type "whois.sc" in front of a URL.
• C-Class Checker: If you have a list of all the links you want to get rid of, you can run them through a bulk C-class checker to see how many of them are on the same C-class.
• SpyonWeb: If you only have 1 URL to work with, this tool lets you find out what other domains they are associated with. Just put in a website URL, IP address or even the Google analytics or AdSense code and you can find all of the websites that are connected to it.Keep a record of all efforts to contact 'bad links', as it will show Google you've been making a good effort to get rid of these irrelevant links.

If you find that Google's Panda & Penguin updates have affected your website and you believe there may have been an error of some sort, there is a form on Google you can fill out to pinpoint search terms that you believe you shouldn't be penalized for: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVxdmdRWFJRTjRoLWZVTHZkaTBQbkE6MQ&ndplr=1

Reader Questions On Content Syndication, Duplicate Content and Back-Links

As a follower of my blog, you've likely read about the SONAR Content Distribution Model and how it uses quality, original content through strategic, synchronized and targeted distribution on organic online channels.

Readers of my ezine as well as my book, Content Is Cash, often email me questions about 'SONAR marketing' and I thought it would be helpful to publish these real-life questions, as it may be something that was on your mind.

So here goes...

Q:  Do I have repurpose the original content every time I add it to a new SONAR site or do it only by individual SONAR categories?   

A: Yes. Your original 'catalyst content' should be the source content that goes to your in-house audience first (i.e. blog, email), then you should take that source and repurpose and reuse it -- adapting it accordingly -- to each SONAR site you disseminate it to as well as for each target audience within those select SONAR site. SONAR's key is using quality, original, content that is useful, valuable, and actionable.  For each site/audience, you can repurpose it in many ways:

--add new sentences, remove sentences
--add/change headlines, subheadings and intro copy
--change closing paragraph/call to action
--modify bullets, mix them up, or add/delete to existing ones

A press release of your repurposed version is a completely different format as the original source. It's written in third person and using quotes. It also should have a headline that is newsworthy and gets readers attention quickly. This version is different from a version that is, let's say, used in article marketing (article) or in social networking sites (content blurbs) -- yet all of these uses originated from the same source.

Q: If I have two Social media bookmarking sites, like Digg and Reddit, do I have to repurpose the article for each site or use the same content for the SONAR Social Media Bookmarking sites?

A: Yes, but it doesn't have to be heavy edits. You may change headline and add/remove sentences or paragraphs based on each audience and headline being used. It needs to be relevant and make sense to your target reader. That's what makes SONAR unique -- it's targeted and relevant -- it also leverages high quality content and is uploaded to synergistic website's where that audience would find it relevant.

Q: Wouldn't Google pick up that the back-link found in each repurposed articles as the same link as the original content and declare them the same?

Read my blogposts (below) on what is duplicate content and what isn't. If you target the content for each audience and repurpose it -- as long as it's quality content, relevant to each site and audience, and are on different domains -- it's not duplicate content or spam.  Your press release is targeted for one audience type; and your article marketing or social marketing blurb is targeted to another audience.  Google's updates like Farmer, Panda and Penguin are targeting sites that use irrelevant links, poor quality content and that are spammy. 

SONAR's uses are relevant to each audience/site it's on. It's not the same article over and over again, it's repurposed and modified. It's also not on the same domain -- it's all over the web in targeted locations that you're hand selecting.      

I like to mix up back-links as well. So some repurposed versions may link back to your source content. For example, your online press release may link back to the press release on your website or blog in the 'Press' or 'Media' section of your website; I also put in two other links in my press releases (in the About Us section, including social media account and free ezine sign up page -- for lead gen purposes). Your article (full or excerpt) may link back to the original article in your 'Newsletter archives' section. Your social media blurbs may link to 'Newsletter article', home page', or 'ezine sign up page', and so on.   Your links should be strategically chosen based on your call to action

Extra reading:

http://www.musclemarketing.blogspot.com/2012_03_18_archive.html 

http://www.musclemarketing.blogspot.com/2012_05_06_archive.html

Pinterest And Other Social Sites You Should Be Aware Of

Pinterest And Other Social Sites You Should Be Aware Of

Most people know about popular social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, I get a lot of questions about other, underutilized sites that are on the tipping point of popularity, and how to use those sites for marketing purposes.  

First, I'd like to clarify the differences between various 'social' sites:

Social bookmarking, news and tagging are sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious, and Pinterest. These websites allow users to 'bookmark' things they like - content, images, videos, websites - and allow others in the community to see what's been bookmarked and 'follow' if they wish. This is the epitome of viral marketing and community interaction. When groups of people are like-minded, it's fun and easy to share feedback of things of common interest. For business purposes, it's also a strong way to bond with your audience through content, news and images that are synergistic and leverage those interests for increased website traffic and more.

Social networking are communities like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. It's a way for groups of people to meet and stay in touch with each other, for personal and professional purposes. People can friend, follow or fan someone based on affiliation or interest. Another new site is Quora.com, which is a social question and answer site. Users can view by category and post questions or answers on virtually a business related topic.

Social media refers to sites like Youtube, Flicker or Tumblr where groups of users share media content such as video, audio or pictures (photos). There's also new sites like Spotify.com, which are social music sharing sites, where users can listen to mp3 files as well as with friends via Facebook.

The following are some social marketing and bookmarking sites that you may want to include in your online marketing mix as well as some other tid bits you should be aware of.

Pinterest.com is a social community where users 'pin' (think of a bulletin board) things that they like. Quite simply, it's a virtual pin board. Users can re-pin (which promotes viral marketing ) or follow someone with the same interest. Pineterst is a fun site because it focuses on the visual element. You can utilize content (when you add your descriptive text to your 'pin') as well as include a back-link, but Pinterest primarily leverages graphics, images (pics) and videos pictures.  

Important Tip! For marketing purposes, you can use Pinterest to promote your business or websites related to your business, such as landing pages, squeeze pages, product pages and more. What's important to know is that if your website, or the webpages you're thinking of pinning are flash webpages, you will be unable to 'pin' it, as there's no static images on a flash page for Pineterst to 'grab' for posting.  

I've never been a fan of flash-based website. These sites may look pretty, but it's very hard for search engines to 'crawl' the page, for the very same reason Pinterest can't 'pin' it ... because it's dynamic. (Something to think about for those using search engine marketing and optimization!)

So if you're thinking about using testing Pinterest in your social marketing plan, make sure to pick websites or modify your own webpages to be graphic, image or video rich. Also, like any marketing tactics you're testing, make sure it's in sync with your overall marketing plan and target audience.

If you're target audience is an older crowd, then this may not be the best website, or channel, to reach them.

Quora.com is a great online resource community of questions and answers. If you want to reinforce yourself as an expert, you can search questions related to your area of expertise and post responses that are useful, valuable, and actionable. If you have a legitimate question about any topic, you can post by category and view replies from others who may be versed in that field.

Important Tip! It's important to keep a steady presence on Quora. Stick to your areas of expertise (categories and topics). Make sure you have a keyword rich descriptive bio about yourself and include back-links to relevant websites. All of these things help with credibility and bonding. In addition, Quora's pages are indexed by search engines and do appear and organic search results listing pages (SERPs). Than can expand your reach and visibility, which can lead to traffic to your website, which can then be parlayed into leads or sales.

Digg.com.com is one of my favorite content bookmarking sites. You can upload content 'snippets' or news nuggets. The site will also pull in any images and well as back-links appearing on the same page as your content. Content can be given a 'category' so that the right readers will find it. The more popular your content (number of 'diggs'), the more people in the community it gets exposed to. Viral marketing and traffic generation (to the source website in the 'digg') are typical outcomes from this website. Reddit.com is a similar site which allows users to upload a content excerpts (article, video, picture) and link to the full version. This is a great site to increase your market visibility and extend reach. It's also a powerful platform to drive website traffic.  

Important Tip! Pick content that is useful, valuable and actionable - something newsworthy and/or interesting to your target reader. It's very important to have a strong, eye-catching, or persuasive headline that people in the community will want to read. There's so much background noise on Digg, that you want your content/headline to jump out at the reader. Also, include a back-link in the body copy you are uploading. With Reddit, excerpt space is limited, so make sure to pick content that will not only resonate with the target audience, but also include a headline that screams out to the reader to 'click here' to read more.  

With social marketing, it's a matter of matching the content type to the most synergistic platform and audience. Social marketing may not be for every business. But I believe it's certainly worth a strategic test. Just remember an old copywriting rule of thumb, which is 'know your audience'. If you know who your target reader (prospect) is, then you can craft enticing messages and pick social platforms where those prospects are likely to congregate.

Most any social marketing site can be leveraged for marketing and business purposes. But make sure to keep your messages fun, entertaining, engaging and interactive. Because after all, that's what the 'social' in 'social marketing' is all about.

Content Is Cash Author, Wendy Montes de Oca MBA, Interview: Newmediaradiohour.com

Below is my interview with LA-based radio host, Rey Ybarra, of the popular social marketing show, NewMediaRadioHour.

Full interview: http://newmediaradiohour.com/author-interviews/content-is-cash-author-wendy-montes-de-oca-m-b-a/

YouTube version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h04gB9fSeM&feature=youtu.be

Business Alert: Monetize Content, Maximize Marketing ROI, and Leverage Search Engines with Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, Content is Cash, By Wendy Montes de Oca

Monetize Content, Maximize Marketing ROI, and Leverage Search Engines with Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, Content is Cash, By Wendy Montes de Oca

Concerned by the recent Google Penguin update? No need for SEO crisis management if you have former #1 Amazon Web marketing bestseller, Content Is Cash. Content Is Cash focuses on content curation and syndication – using great high quality, original content, strategic repurposing, and targeted distribution (based by audience) to relevant websites and online channels. This comprehensive strategy lets users work with search engines and is virtually unscathed by Google algorithm changes such as Farmer/Panda and the recent Penguin updates, which aim to reduce webspam, low quality content websites, and other 'black hat' SEO practices.

Palm Beach Gardens, FL (PRWEB) May 08, 2012    Former #1 Amazon web marketing bestseller, Content Is Cash: Leveraging Great Content and the Web for Increased Traffic, Sales, Leads and Buzz’ by Wendy Montes de Oca, MBA [Que Publishing, Paperback, ISBN# 0789741083], shows readers an innovative, high performing, organic strategy that leverages content and the Web for maximum marketing ROI.

The book focuses on a systematic, comprehensive, organic online marketing strategy that harnesses the power of quality, original content that is 'UVA' (useful, valuable, and actionable) and its targeted distribution based by audience on the Internet. It also works with search engines, not against them.

According to Montes de Oca, “Content Is Cash centers around my SONAR Content Distribution Model, and its common sense approach to leveraging great content and the Web.”

Montes de Oca continues, “SONAR is a systematic and synchronized form of content curation and syndication -- that is -- using high quality, original content, strategically repurpsosing the content for each target audience, and then disseminating the content to select, relevant websites and online channels. This tactical, hands-on approach helps SONAR marketing go virtually unscathed by search engine algorithm changes (such as Farmer/Panda, and the recent Google Penguin).”

Montes de Oca adds, “What makes the Content Is Cash so attractive to small business owners, marketers, and online publishers is that the strategy the book touts is free, it’s targeted, it’s relevant, and it can be applied to most any niche, as long as there’s great high quality, original content … that is the key ingredient. Content Is Cash and SONAR marketing do not condone or use 'black hat' techniques such as keyword stuffing, link schemes, cloaking, hidden text, content spamming, and more. And the way SONAR is implemented, it's not duplicate content.”

Montes de Oca adds, “I’ve been using SONAR and SONAR-type principles in the publishing world and as consultant for over a decade. Leveraging original content through this manner is extremely beneficial and utilizes ‘white hat’, organic search engine marketing principles as well as search engine optimization, online press releases, social marketing and bookmarking, article marketing, guerrilla marketing and more. It’s helped increase website traffic, rank, relevant back-links, search engine visibility, and leads.”
Montes de Oca concludes, “So many small business owners are recognizing the power of SONAR because it uses something they already have (content), it’s easy to learn and implement, and it doesn’t impact their budget. And maximizing ROI is a universal goal that all businesses strive for.”

For more information visit http://www.amazon.com/Content-Cash-Leveraging-Increased-Biz-Tech/dp/0789741083 or http://www.quepublishing.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0789741083.

About Wendy Montes de Oca, MBA
Ms. Montes de Oca’s diversified background includes nearly 20 years of experience in direct response and online marketing, media, publishing, financial services and law. She’s worked for renowned publishers and Fortune 500 companies. Ms. Montes de Oca is the creator of the SONAR Content Distribution Model TM and an Internet marketing expert with a proven track record for both acquisition and retention efforts. During her career, she has generated over $150 million in total revenues for various corporations, consulting clients, and her own consulting firm, Precision Marketing and Media, LLC (http://www.precisionmarketingmedia.com/).

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Concerned by the recent Google Penguin update? No need for SEO crisis management if you're informed...

Is the "A" in SONAR (article marketing) still a viable tactic with search engines and the Farmer/PANDA and the recent, Penguin, updates?

Lately I've been hearing a lot of people saying things such as: 'Google doesn't like content or article marketing since they changed their algorithms' and 'article directories are not useful for search engine marketing and link-building efforts anymore.' I like to remind people of a few fundamental rules of online marketing, specifically involving content, that virtually never changes and is extremely helpful to know (and do!) ...

-- 'Mix' it up. It's always a smart thing to have a diversified online marketing mix. I suggest to clients to look at their online marketing plan like a pie, and each slice is a tactical allocation -- organic and paid for strategies. As with your financial planning ventures (such as with your retirement account), it's always safer to diversify than put all your eggs in one basket. The same holds true for your online marketing plan. Mix it up and keep it diversified. Some allocations may be smaller than others, based on budget, objective, and other variables. But it's good to spread it out across many tactics and online marketing channels such as organic search, paid search, social media, online PR, content marketing, etc. Then if one tactic is a laggard and others are leaders, it all balances out in the end. This also helps compensate for algorithmic `bumps in the road' that may temporarily affect your search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) efforts.

--Doing It 'Right' Can't Be Wrong. Google and other search engines often change their algorithms to as keep search results relevant and fresh to related queries as well as impact unscrupulous 'black hat' practicing marketers who use no-no tactics such as gateway pages, keyword stuffing, link baiting, link farming, content farming and more. These are the folks that link to irrelevant sites with irrelevant content to the equivalent of content spamming. For compliant content marketers or those using the SONAR Content Distribution Model -- the core strategy is to leverage high quality, useful, content through synchronized, synergistic and relevant online distribution. SONAR and content marketing, when implemented correctly, include 'white hat' SEO principles. And if you're using quality, original content with either of those marketing tactics and distributing your content to targeted, relevant sites, you really can't go wrong.

--Quality And Relevance Are Key! According to Webpronews.com, when Google released their official statement about the algorithm change in 2011, the Farmer/Panda update was aimed to help more quality websites be higher in the search results versus content farms with irrelevant, unbeneficial content based on the keywords being searched. Article directories may have initially been stuck in the cross-hairs losing some initial value, but again, if you are putting out `UVA' (useful, valuable, actionable) content into numerous organic online channels, the diversity and balance will offset any temporary side affects which may occur versus doing article directory marketing by itself. Based on my experience, if you push out quality, original content in several places including article directories, your articles should appear in pages 1-5 of Google search results. And with Google's latest `freshness' update, the most timely and relevant content should appear in descending order by date from the top of the search results. Quality and relevance are key.

--Targeted Link-Building. Links, whether it's one way back link or a reciprocal back link, are still links. Quality links help SEO, and that is undisputable. But again, there's some ground rules to do it right within best practices ... and do it wrong. Links should be quality links, and by that I mean on sites that have relevant content and a synergistic audience as to your own. It should also be a site with a good traffic rank. I prefer to do link building manually and do it strategically. I research sites that are synergistic in all ways to the site I'm working with (albeit one-way or reciprocal links). Doing it manually allows more targeted selection and control over where you want your links to go. Manual selection and distribution can also lead to other opportunities down the road with those sites you're building relationships with including cross-marketing or editorial efforts such as editorial contributions, revenue shares and more. In my view, this approach is both link building and relationship building.

--Location, Location, Location. Where you link to is important. When doing SONAR or content marketing, I always tell clients to deep link, that is, not just link to their home page -- which to me, doesn't make any sense anyway, as there's too many distractions on a home page. Readers need a simple, direct call to action. Keep them focused. It's always smarter to link to your source article, which should be on one of your subpages, such as the newsletter archive page or press release page. Now you have a connection -- the article/content excerpt you pushed out and is appearing in the SERPs (search engine result pages) and its redirect links to the full version on your archive or press page. You've satisfied the searches expectations by not doing a `bait and switch'. There's relevance and continuity. And to help monetize that traffic, that newsletter archive or press webpage (which you're driving the traffic to), the background should contain fixed elements to 'harness' the traffic it will be getting for list growth and cross-selling such as fixed lead gen boxes, text ads, banner ads, editorial notes, and more. These elements should blend with your overall format, not being to obnoxious, but being easily seen.

--Catalyst Content. It's always important to make sure you publish the content on your website first ... I call this your 'catalyst content'. This is the driving source which all other inbound marketing will occur and be focused around. Your website articles should be dated and be formatted similar to a news feed or blog. Also, posting timely press releases will work favorable as they will be viewed by Google and human readers as the latest news (again favorable to Google's latest `freshness' update). At the same time, send your content out via email (i.e. ezine) to your in-house list before external marketing channels see it. This helps from an SEO standpoint, but also helps with credibility and bonding with your subscribers and regular website visitors as they should get your information before the masses. There you go. My best practices for marketing with content. I don't practice nor condone 'black hat' marketing tactics. I've always been lucky enough to work for top publishers and clients that put out great, original content. It really does all boil down to the quality of the content when you talk about any form of article and search engine marketing. Content is king, and when you have strong editorial, along with being a `creatively strategic' thinker, you don't need to engage in 'black hat' or questionable SEO/SEM. Algorithms are always changing. It's good to be aware of the latest news, trends and techniques, but also not to put you're your eggs in one basket and build your entire online marketing strategy based on the `current' algorithms. Using solid content, analyzing your websites visitor and usage patterns and keeping general best practices in mind are staple components that will always play an important role in content marketing.


Google, SEO and Content Syndication: Debunking The Duplicate Content Myth

Oftentimes, real-life experiences with my clients influence my blog posts.For instance, recently a consulting client of mine asked me if I agreed with a colleague of his about Google disliking duplicate content and to reduce or refrain the amount of content he syndicates (distributes) on the Web.I think there’s a huge misunderstanding out there about how to distribute your content without hurting your website in the eyes of search engines.If you publish content, you should have the first, original content on your website. No doubt.

However, you can "repurpose" it and strategically distribute it on the Web, and this will not hurt your search engine/Google SEO efforts.This is something I refer to in my SONAR Content Distribution Model TM and has helped my clients’ quantifiably increase traffic rank, traffic visits, leads and sales.SONAR is a cost effective, yet powerful, method of repurposing and synchronizing content (albeit text, audio, video) distribution into various, targeted channels. And it allows companies, publishers, entrepreneurs … basically anyone with content on their website … the ability to ultimately turn traffic into sales.

SONAR represents the following online distribution platforms:

S Syndicate partners, content syndication networks, and user generate content sites

O Online press releases

N Network (social) communities

A Article directories

R Relevant posts to blogs, forums, and bulletin boards

SONAR Case study: My synchronized content distribution technique helped increase traffic ranking and visits to a alternative health website by 3,160% and 81.5% respectively in only three months. And in four months, traffic visits increased to an investment website by nearly 80% as well as an increase its traffic ranking by nearly 150 percent. Plus, the traffic to this investment site was monetized for an ROI of 221%.So not only was the website’s SEO/SEM efforts NOT hut by content syndication, it actually improved exponentially with rank, visits and sales.

The key is to repurpose the content. To tweek an original article on your website with minor changes (for example to headline, intro paragraph, closing, etc.) and then syndicate on other different websites.Google tries to look for the best version…where the content originated...the first, primary source (usually your website) and typically that site that gets the "search engine credit" so to speak via the higher ranking in the organic results listing.

In Google's view, duplicate content is more hurtful for a site if it's posted in more then one place on that SAME DOMAIN (not via syndication on other websites such as through online press releases, article directories, etc.) .

For example, if you may have two pages on your site with virtually the same content, in most cases, Google notices this and ignores one of those webpages. You will not get both of those listings in the search engine organic results…just one of them.Keep in mind, Google will decide your pages are duplicate if ONLY your (page titles and meta descriptions) are the same. So make sure each webpage on your site has unique, relevant tags with targeted keywords.Now if you’re concerned about webpages on your website and it’s text "printer friendly version" hurting your website’s SEO… simply block the search engines from spidering the print friendly version.When you think about it...syndicating content is the SEO model of social sites (like Digg, Drop Jack, StumpleUpon, etc.) and article directories.

So make sure you understand the power of your content and how to syndicate it the right way before you hit the breaks on any SEO/SEM efforts.

Because that’s what will actually hurt your site … doing nothing and not leveraging your content.

Myths And Misconceptions: The Real Truth About Content Marketing And The Search Engines

[Editorial Note: The below is a copy of the article I wrote for my blog on TargetMarketingMag.com. Enjoy!]

Lately I've been hearing a lot of people saying things such as: 'Google doesn't like content or article marketing since they changed their algorithms' and 'article directories are not useful for search engine marketing and link-building efforts anymore.'

I like to remind people of a few fundamental rules of online marketing, specifically involving content, that virtually never changes and is extremely helpful to know (and do!) ...

· 'Mix' it up. It's always a smart thing to have a diversified online marketing mix. I suggest to clients to look at their online marketing plan like a pie, and each slice is a tactical allocation -- organic and paid for strategies. As with your financial planning ventures (such as with your retirement account), it's always safer to diversify than put all your eggs in one basket. The same holds true for your online marketing plan. Mix it up and keep it diversified. Some allocations may be smaller than others, based on budget, objective, and other variables. But it's good to spread it out across many tactics and online marketing channels such as organic search, paid search, social media, online PR, content marketing, etc. Then if one tactic is a laggard and others are leaders, it all balances out in the end. This also helps compensate for algorithmic ‘bumps in the road’ that may temporarily affect your search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) efforts.

· Doing It 'Right' Can't Be Wrong. Google and other search engines often change their algorithms to as keep search results relevant and fresh to related queries as well as impact unscrupulous 'black hat' practicing marketers who use no-no tactics such as gateway pages, keyword stuffing, link baiting, link farming, content farming and more. These are the folks that link to irrelevant sites with irrelevant content to the equivalent of content spamming. For compliant content marketers or those using the SONAR Content Distribution Model -- the core strategy is to leverage high quality, useful, content through synchronized, synergistic and relevant online distribution. SONAR and content marketing, when implemented correctly, include 'white hat' SEO principles. And if you're using quality, original content with either of those marketing tactics and distributing your content to targeted, relevant sites, you really can't go wrong.

· Quality And Relevance Are Key! According to Webpronews.com, when Google released their official statement about the algorithm change in 2011, the Farmer/Panda update was aimed to help more quality websites be higher in the search results versus content farms with irrelevant, unbeneficial content based on the keywords being searched. Article directories may have initially been stuck in the cross-hairs losing some initial value, but again, if you are putting out ‘UVA’ (useful, valuable, actionable) content into numerous organic online channels, the diversity and balance will offset any temporary side affects which may occur versus doing article directory marketing by itself. Based on my experience, if you push out quality, original content in several places including article directories, your articles should appear in pages 1-5 of Google search results. And with Google’s latest ‘freshness’ update, the most timely and relevant content should appear in descending order by date from the top of the search results. Quality and relevance are key.

· Targeted Link-Building. Links, whether it's one way back link or a reciprocal back link, are still links. Quality links help SEO, and that is undisputable. But again, there's some ground rules to do it right within best practices ... and do it wrong. Links should be quality links, and by that I mean on sites that have relevant content and a synergistic audience as to your own. It should also be a site with a good traffic rank. I prefer to do link building manually and do it strategically. I research sites that are synergistic in all ways to the site I'm working with (albeit one-way or reciprocal links). Doing it manually allows more targeted selection and control over where you want your links to go. Manual selection and distribution can also lead to other opportunities down the road with those sites you're building relationships with including cross-marketing or editorial efforts such as editorial contributions, revenue shares and more. In my view, this approach is both link building and relationship building.

· Location, Location, Location. Where you link to is important. When doing SONAR or content marketing, I always tell clients to deep link, that is, not just link to their home page -- which to me, doesn't make any sense anyway, as there's too many distractions on a home page. Readers need a simple, direct call to action. Keep them focused. It's always smarter to link to your source article, which should be on one of your subpages, such as the newsletter archive page or press release page. Now you have a connection -- the article/content excerpt you pushed out and is appearing in the SERPs (search engine result pages) and its redirect links to the full version on your archive or press page. You’ve satisfied the searches expectations by not doing a ‘bait and switch’. There’s relevance and continuity. And to help monetize that traffic, that newsletter archive or press webpage (which you're driving the traffic to), the background should contain fixed elements to 'harness' the traffic it will be getting for list growth and cross-selling such as fixed lead gen boxes, text ads, banner ads, editorial notes, and more. These elements should blend with your overall format, not being to obnoxious, but being easily seen.

· Catalyst Content. It's always important to make sure you publish the content on your website first ... I call this your 'catalyst content'. This is the driving source which all other inbound marketing will occur and be focused around. Your website articles should be dated and be formatted similar to a news feed or blog. Also, posting timely press releases will work favorable as they will be viewed by Google and human readers as the latest news (again favorable to Google’s latest ‘freshness’ update). At the same time, send your content out via email (i.e. ezine) to your in-house list before external marketing channels see it. This helps from an SEO standpoint, but also helps with credibility and bonding with your subscribers and regular website visitors as they should get your information before the masses.

There you go. My best practices for marketing with content. I don't practice nor condone 'black hat' marketing tactics. I've always been lucky enough to work for top publishers and clients that put out great, original content.

It really does all boil down to the quality of the content when you talk about any form of article and search engine marketing. Content is king, and when you have strong editorial, along with being a ‘creatively strategic’ thinker, you don't need to engage in 'black hat' or questionable SEO/SEM.

Algorithms are always changing. It’s good to be aware of the latest news, trends and techniques, but also not to put you’re your eggs in one basket and build your entire online marketing strategy based on the ‘current’ algorithms. Using solid content, analyzing your websites visitor and usage patterns and keeping general best practices in mind are staple components that will always play an important role in content marketing.

In a nutshell: I believe articles can have the same theme and have some content overlap, but should be tailored to each platform it's being posted to and to each target audience/niche group that will be reading it. That will keep the content relevant and specific. With content marketing (and especially with the SONAR Content Distribution Model) I like to think of leveraging UVA content and it's targeted dissemination on the Web as 'relevant repurposing and redistribution with a purpose'. It should also not be 'fluff''. Content, in my opinion (in article marketing), should be 'UVA': useful, valuable and actionable.