Yesterday, while on the phone to the President of a major international consulting firm, this Corporate President was proudly reading to me a blog comment he had posted onto an industrial leaders blog in response to an article which was written. The President’s comment was excellent and well written. As the President of this large consulting firm finished reading his blog comment, he stated to me, “I haven’t had any response yet to the comment?”
“Did you provide a link to your web page?” I responded.
The conversation was silent for a second. The response came back from the President, “No! Was I suppose to?”
One of the most commonly overlooked marketing and promotional tools people can use on the Internet is perhaps one of the simplest tools available to them. To some it’s the most obvious step to take, and yet many fail to capitalize on the strength of it.
Every piece of written communication that goes out with your name on it should also include your web address in the http://www.xxxxxxx.xxx format. This should become a habit for you, a habit as repetitive as signing your name.
Two lessons I learned early in life.
1. People don’t read signs, especially the warnings signs you post to caution them of a safety hazard.
2. People are at their core, lazy. On the Internet, they want a link they can simply click on once rather than have to go through all the work of doing a search for someone.
Every email, every blog comment, should include a link to your website. Not only should it include a link to your website, but you should also include a signature line below your signature. It’s free space that few people use well for advertising and yet it’s perfectly acceptable to post a one sentence or short two sentence description of who you are, BUT include a link to your web site.
Example “A”
Dr. John Doe of http://www.xxxxxx.xxx is a leading proctologist and author of “Hey, It’s Dark In Here!”
We can dress this up a little more by substituting the URL (web address) for the web page title, making the web page tile a hyper link that people could click on to go directly to the person’s web page. To do this, a small piece of HTML code is used that enables you to swap your URL for what ever you wish to put in it's place. Where ever you type your blog comment, HTML code must be acceptable for this to work. For the sake of this example xxx.xxxxxx.xxx represents your URL. I should also tell you that in order for this HTML code to display without activating, I have had to alter it slightly. Normally, when you would go to use this code, you will not use any of the "(" or ")" as I have done. Also, immediately after the term Updates in brackets it should appear as the front half of a diamond key character, forward slash, letter a, followed by the back half of the diamond key character.
Example “B”
Dr. John Doe of (<)a href="http:/xxx.xxxxxx.xxx">Medical Updates (>) is a leading proctologist and author of “Hey, It’s Dark In Here!”
The finished product for this signature line would have the term “Medical Updates” appearing as a hyper link (in the color blue and underlined if that’s how other URLS appear on that particular page. The signature line would read as follows:
Dr. John Doe of Medical Updates is a leading proctologist and author of “Hey, It’s Dark In Here!”
Once a person creates a signature line, it becomes a simple exercise in cutting a pasting it into blog comments as needed. Most email programs allow you to enter a signature into your emails automatically as a onetime procedure.
How does this help you?
1. It provides an easy way for people to get to your website.
2. When placed on a blog comment, it provides a very valuable back link to your web site which search engines love, and on the right blog, can improve your overall web page ranking in the eyes of the search engines.
3. When people do run searches on you, your comments will show up as well, and it gives them an opportunity to gain a feel for your capability and expertise.
It’s important to remember, when building traffic for your web page, there is no such thing, as one true traffic source. Traffic, as it does in real life, comes from all directions. The more times, you place your name out where people can see it, the more traffic it will generate. Commenting on blogs 3-4 times a week is an excellent way to accomplish this. The secret to blog commenting is to place comments on blogs that accomplish one of two things for you: place you in a circle of people who bring to you through mere association, greater prestige (focus 20 percent of your energy here); and place your comments in blogs where your potential customers are actively involved (focus 80 percent of your energy here).
Grab hold of the excellence life has to offer.
About The Author
Copyright © 2008 James C. Tanner. All Rights Reserved.
James C. Tanner of the UPDATED Make Money Online With A Home Based Business Opportunity, Internet Marketing Strategies, and Small Business Opportunities, is a retired entrepreneur, business trainer, investigator, and writer whose articles are enjoyed by 12.5 million readers monthly. He currently spends his time helping people make money online through internet marketing and home based business opportunities.
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