Four Star General Cleaning Announces End Of Year Special: Get 10% Off First Monthly Cleaning

Posted by DD on Dec 15, 2011

New York, NY, December 15, 2011 - Just in time for the holidays, Four Star General Cleaning is offering to take 10% off your first monthly cleaning bill when you sign up this month. Those holiday parties can be messy, but Four Star General Cleaning can be there in a jiffy.

Cleaning for the holidays can be a chore at home, and cleaning the office is no different.  Facing this task, whether you want to have a holiday party (or clean up the mess from the party), or just to give your office a nice sparkle for the season, can be daunting.  Four Star General Cleaning’s mission is to ease your burden and make your place of business shine.

Four Star General Cleaning can develop an office cleaning service plan specifically for you no matter what the size of your facility. Our current client roster includes: office buildings, schools and universities, retail facilities, banks, medical offices, computer firms, industrial lofts and other commercial dwellings.  Some of the services provided in addition to office cleaning and janitorial services are floor waxing, stripping and sealing, carpet cleaning, porter services, window cleaning and construction clean-up.

Why Choose Four Star?

•             Low rates and free estimates

•             Customized service, 7 days a week

•             Fully insured and bonded

•             Environmentally friendly products

•             Quality trained, supervised, and uniformed employees

Four Star General Cleaning employs trained technicians who are equipped to handle any type of job in many specialized areas of expertise. They carefully monitor the work of the staff on a regular basis to assure quality. Four Star’s high standards generate superior results for your cleaning needs.  Four Star General Cleaning is fully insured and a member of the Building Service Contractor’s Association.

Four Star General Cleaning is a privately-owned professional cleaning company that has provided personalized and quality cleaning services for over 20 years in the New York Tri-state area. Four Star’s cleaning programs emphasize personalization — daily, weekly, or monthly — since each business has different needs.

For more information call 212-741-9400 or check out http://www.4StarCleaning.com.

This press release has been distributed by SalemGlobal Internet Interactive Public Relations. Based in New York City, SalemGlobal optimizes websites to increase traffic from search engines, provides lead generation, and improves conversion of site visitors to buyers. Other services include general website marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), ecommerce solutions, content management systems, website hosting, web design and maintenance. For more information, please contact CEO Raphi Salem at 888-578-6732.

Super Bowl XLV, Darth Vader and Valentines Day: What your business can learn from Sports, Villains and Love

Posted by Salem Global on Feb 8, 2011

Well who saw the big game this past Sunday? I didn’t but I did see the commercials on YouTube so don’t worry if you spent three million dollars to try to reach my conscience, inner conscience and spending part of my brain. I only counted 63 commercials though here at http://www.youtube.com/user/adblitz. Did I miss any? Please if you need me to drink your brand of beer or buy your brand of car, you are going to have to get on YouTube right now.

You see. That’s what I have been trying to tell you for the past 14 years. I don’t own a TV but I do pay for Internet access. Soon that won’t matter anyway. I watch super bowl commercials and even the halftime show (which was awesome btw – thanks Black Eyed Peas) on Youtube and if I want to watch Saturday Night Live I go to hulu. Besides that I am not really interested. And if you are an advertiser and want to reach the next generation, of course keep spending millions on the super bowl and everywhere else, but don’t forget about the Internet guys and Google. Remember – Google bought Youtube a few years ago knowing that more people will watch video clips over and over again more than just once on regular TV. Visionary is what I call it.

So most people are saying that they weren’t so impressed with this year’s commercials. I agree. True you had the comedy. The drama. The facts. The sex. (Btw – bad image of an old faced Joan Rivers on someone else’s sexy body. I think that was a mistake mr. godaddy. Stick with Danica Patrick and other young stars and sex symbols. Joan Rivers was a bad move.

As for you Mr. Darth Vader or should I say YOUNG Darth Vader…. funny commercial but I don’t remember what car you are trying to sell to me. When will these advertising executives start calling me. Never? Well then you aren’t going to sell as many cars. I was thinking about the image of Darth Vader and realized it was smart since the demographic of car buyers will get the reference. But in a few years its not going to work.

Timothy Hutton in Tibet. Bad commercial. Bad message. Groupon – you are lucky to sell for billions but your ad agency is fired. Oh and so is your chief marketing officer.

CareerBuilder. Funny commercial with monkeys.

Eminem selling out for brisk iced tea…. The use of celebrity in commercials is usually effective. Especially black eyed peas halftime show coupled with their commercials for chatter or just Will.i.am? – I guess no one told him that no one uses nor will they use chatter.com. On the other hand, salesforce.com is a good company so maybe they will figure it out.

Lastly, this week is Valentine’s Day. Use it to your advantage. That’s right. I am talking about to your Internet Marketing advantage… Send out those emails to your clients that you LOVE and anyone else for that matter. Like – SalemGlobal LOVES its clients. And customers. And people who read this email week after week. It’s just another way of saying thank you. And since I won’t be sending you any flowers or chocolate, buy some yourself. But think about me and SalemGlobal as you are doing it

Want to know more about the superbowl, Darth Vader, bad commercials, how to make the Internet work for you and what to give your loved one for Valentine’s Day? Call Raphi Salem at 212-993-5828 or email info@salemglobal.com and we can talk about it.

Lead Generation & Internet Marketing: How to grow your business in 2011

Posted by Salem Global on Dec 28, 2010

Happy New Year Everyone! What are you doing now? Are you on vacation or are you working? Or as my father used to ask, “are you working hard or hardly working?”

(As you can see according to my pictures I am hardly working as the snow has shut down New York City: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254976&id=655317826&l=85b7897080)

My conversations with friends, colleagues, business partners, family, fellow networkers and anyone on the street these days usually turns into a reflection of how the year went and how next year looks. Sort of like a State of the Union address. So I guess, while I got my ice skating in Bryant Park NYC out of the way today and while my computer uploads my snow blizzard pictures of Dec 2010 to my facebook account, here is my 2 cents about how things went this year and what’s in store for 2011…

2010 started out on a positive upswing. After 2 miserable years of hemorrhaging business, (2008 and 2009 were particularly terrible years due to the economy) and the fact that organizations usually cut their marketing budgets in bad times… (usually a short term save but long term loss since any competition that continues to market throughout unfavorable market conditions usually recovers faster since they show consistency and continue the momentum of branding while others get left behind in the dust…) 2010 was relatively a decent year. It wasn’t as great as 2007, when the economy was rocking and the Internet marketing industry was hot, but we picked up a few accounts and that added to our bottom line.

So starting out with a positive attitude is always necessary but realistically speaking, companies were still afraid to bite the full marketing bullet and invest in their websites, online marketing and general marketing.

At SalemGlobal, we always learn from our mistakes as well as from the good things we have done. Just like Brian Tracy and Ken Blanchard teach, reward your employees or “catch them doing something RIGHT” (as opposed to something wrong.) You will find that their self-esteem and confidence will rise and so will their productivity which will have a positive effect on your work environment as a whole.

For us, this was the year of “lead generation” as opposed to your plain old SEO-search-engine-optimization-we-can-get-you-to-the-top-of-Google strategy. SO WHAT if someone can get you to the top of Google. And as a matter of fact, in 2010 Google made some design changes to its SERP (search engine results page) so that they can sell more ad space. Now, in addition to the top 3 sponsored ads (now just called “Ads”), they have elevated the local listings so that the organic listings are way way down on the page. Sometimes they don’t just show the top 3 local listings, sometimes depending on the keyword they will show ten!

So where does THAT leave your SEO company? Who cares right? What you really want are leads. And more than that, you really want QUALIFIED leads and even better CLOSED BUSINESS!!!! I started out in the web design business in 1997 and have built hundreds of websites. But did the doctors get more patients from their websites? Did my real estate clients sell more houses and condos? Did my car dealerships sell more cars, parts, and accessories? Did the non-profits get more donations? The truth is that some years they did and some years they didn’t. The Internet has made many twists and turns on the roller coaster of an industry. Now everyone wants to be on twitter. Yesterday everyone wanted to be on linkedin. Before that you NEEDED to be on facebook. And everyone needs a mobile app. Oh and of course you HAD to be on Google. And of course don’t forget Yahoo, AOL, Lycos, Alta vista, excite, Ask, prodigy and CompuServe. What does it all mean? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI)

I will tell you what it all means. Like I said earlier. All businesses need to CLOSE business. Not seek out the latest and greatest trend. What works for one organization might not necessarily work for another. We have changed our business plan a few times over the past 14 years and each time we get closer to getting it right. As the refrigerator magnet says: “It’s all good in the end. And if it’s not all good, it’s not the end…” Business and making money is a journey. It should be fun and frustrating along the way but ultimately you need to live your life. So my message as we close out 2010 is to seek out and find that balance. Figure out what is your best marketing strategy. Keep on monitoring your Google analytics and keep on looking at the numbers. As the economy gets better, we will all benefit. This week however, enjoy the snow

Want to know more about lead generation for your business. Call Raphi Salem at 212-993-5828 or just email info@salemglobal.com and we can have a great brief to the point chat about how you can benefit from our Internet marketing and lead generation strategies.

Happy New Year!

Raphi Salem

Desperate Pleas For Last Minute Online Shoppers, Reputation Management & Internet Marketing Discounts: What Your Business Should Be Doing Before Christmas and New Years

Posted by Salem Global on Dec 21, 2010

Last week I gave you the updated 21 things your business should be doing online for 2011. But what about RIGHT NOW you ask? Well, lets take a look at Toys R Us, Staples, Priceline, Party City, Kayak and Spirit Airlines…

Get All You Want for Christmas with Fares from $9* Each Way!

$50 Coupon* for Last Minute Holiday Travel!

Last Minute Hotel Deals from $45/night!

Four coupons inside for holiday procrastinators!

Our Lowest Prices Ever! 50% Off!

20% Off Coupon! Save In Stores & Online

Save up to 50% – Last Minute Gift event!

Buy One Get One 50% Off

For the First Time EVER! Stores Open 24 Hours Now Thru Christmas Eve!

There you have it. Huge multi-million dollar companies and corporations are sending out messages like this. So don’t you think its a good idea? Ok, lets face it. I am 40 years old and have been in the advertising and marketing field for 20 years. Online for 14 of them. Don’t you think that the corporate giants who spend millions and millions of dollars on advertising know what they are doing yet? I do. Learn from the best. They have the biggest budgets around. Spend more money on an ad than you make in a lifetime and you should be doing EXACTLY what they are doing.

People want to hear from you. They want to know there is a sale going on. They want to know they can save 50%. They want to know if they buy one they can get one free. They want to know about the last minute deals. They want to know. And you should be telling them in 6 ways:

1) On your website

2) In your blog

3) In a newsletter email

4) In an article

5) In a press release

6) On all of your social media including twitter, facebook and linked in

And if you haven’t noticed, those are the six places where SalemGlobal Internet would be placing your content for up to half off! Seriously SG is running a discount throughout the holiday season into the new year. NOW is the time to talk to Raphi Salem about promoting your business online. That’s right. You too! Hey – I am talking to you.

Let me give you two examples of conversations I had in the past week:

1st – http://www.AngelaCosmai.com – located in Stamford, CT. Local beauty shop, hair and color salon, wants local customers to travel all the way to Greenwich CT. They need to fix their google places, maps and listings and give a 10% off next visit to those that give them a positive review online. And by the way – positive reviews combat negatives and help with reputation management.

2nd – http://www.WorldHyundaiMatteson.com – located in Matteson, IL. Google “World Hyundai” and you will see that they dominate the first search engine results page with their main site, their blog, their marketing sites, review sites, Facebook etc. So that means that they are almost completely in control of their reputation online. Other companies struggle with this but you don’t have to if you go about it correctly.

So in conclusion this week, let me first wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year! Next year is going to be so much better than 2010. I am money back guaranteeing it. (Oh did I mention that SalemGlobal lead generation strategies come with a money back guarantee?) So get out the Hanukkah Christmas and Kwanzaa messages… the discounts, the incentives, the buy one get one free ads. Get them to sign up for your newsletter and enjoy the holiday season. Yes it’s freezing outside and will continue to get colder. (But that’s ok if you like to ski like me.) And if you want any help setting up a campaign for 2011 and getting your business ready for 1st quarter, give me (Raphi Salem) a call at 212-993-5828 or email info@salemglobal.com.

Website Marketing During The Holiday Season, WikiLeaks, Groupon, New Years Less Than 25 Days, NY Giants, Jets, White Christmas? What Your Business Should Be Doing These Last Days of 2010

Posted by Salem Global on Dec 7, 2010

Now that everything is public on Wikileaks, Groupon has rejected Google’s offer of $6 Billion because they are making around $800 million dollars a year without them. I wanted to publicly announce that if Google wants to acquire SalemGlobal for $6 billion I will sell. True we are not making the $800 million that Groupon is, but we do clear $800 dollars? Is that enough for ya? Ok. How about $5 Billion? $4? Ok – name your price. I can be bought

I love how fickle sports fans are. Personally I am the biggest hypocrite out there. This past Sunday I was a Giants fan all the way. I had texted my trusted sports enthusiast colleague last week when the Giants played and he asked how I even knew they won? I told him I happened to be at another friend’s house when the game was on. Then, this past Sunday, one friend of mine said she was going to the game so that made me root for them as well. Finally, I saw another friend at a birthday party and since she was rooting for Big Blue, so was I. And then to top it all off, I look for the scores of this past weekend’s games and lo and behold, Giants have a whole TWO wins in a row while the New York Jets post their worst game of the season against the New England Patriots. It’s so funny how on Facebook whenever the Jets win, everyone updates their status with a “GO GREEN!” or “J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets!” but when they lose, everyone is silent.

Speaking of silent… one particular organization is NOT being silent. That is WikiLeaks. So there are plenty of jokes going around regarding WikiLeaks and let me share a few with them right now…

What time is it when your wiki leaks? Time to get a new menorah! Ha ha ha LOL! and all that.

Ok – here is a non-Hanukkah version…

Conan: This week’s big story, of course, is WikiLeaks. The website WikiLeaks released more than 250,000 secret government documents –- some of which refer to computer passwords for world leaders. The most shocking revelation?  Kofi Annan’s password is Bieberfan9.

Conan: WikiLeaks says the U.S. sees Afghan President Hamid Karzai as….

…paranoid and weak. Karzai replied, I was really afraid of something like this, but there’s nothing I can do.

Leno: WikiLeaks has ALL the classified secrets. They know all the Pentagon’s secrets. But still, no one knows Victoria’s Secret.

Leno: Doesn’t WikiLeaks sound like some kind of drug like Flomax? My doctor had me on Flomax, then decided I really needed to be on WikiLeaks.

And here is the newsworthy version…

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joked Saturday night at the Kennedy Center Honors regarding Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney and others.

She found it extraordinary to greet so many talented people and said: “I am writing a cable about it, which I’m sure you’ll find soon on your closest website.”

It snowed in New York City for the first time this winter and its starting to get cold. Obviously Christmas is around the corner and your business is either having a (hopefully) fantastic 4th quarter or you can’t wait for the year to end so you can start working and making some money again in 2011. The best thing you can do right now is get into social media. Big campaigns might do something for you on a big scale but the way to go right now is word of mouth marketing…

Gary Rome Hyundai is running a contest for anyone to win four tickets to an Usher concert on December 18, 2010 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT.

http://www.garyromehyundai.com/Gary_Rome_Hyundai_Giveaway.cfm http://www.facebook.com/GaryRomeHyundai

“Like” the Gary Rome Hyundai Facebook page. Leave a comment on the Facebook Wall post titled “Leave a Facebook comment, enter to win 4 Tickets to Usher”

You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the U.S.

Limit 1 entry per person.

The entry period ends at 3:00PM ET on Wednesday, December 15.

At that time, we’ll select 1 winner from the eligible commenters to receive 4 Tickets to Usher at the XL Center in Hartford, CT.

Make sure your Facebook privacy settings allow for direct messages to receive notification in the event you win.

Winner must be able to pick up tickets in person at the dealership in Holyoke, MA.

Standard giveaway rules apply for everything else.

Want to know more about holiday marketing, 4th quarter, getting ready for 1st quarter and social media for your business? Do you need a new marketing strategy for 2011? Call Raphi Salem at 212-993-5828, email info@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information about us, how we work, how much it costs etc. etc.. You will be glad you did!

Website Marketing New York, Jewish New Years. ESPN turns 31. Moneyball. Coach Fritz, Michael Lewis and My Father: What your business can learn from new beginnings and baseball coaches

Posted by Salem Global on Sep 7, 2010

Just a quick note to wish all of our readers a very happy, healthy and successful Jewish New Year. Whether you are Jewish or not and/or whether you celebrate or not, New Years are always a time of reflection and of course celebration. Reflect on the past. See what you can do to improve. Make life goals. Set up a plan to accomplish them. Stop your bad habits (quit smoking already!) and start some good ones (eat better and exercise). When it comes to business, I give the same advice. Stop your bad habits that are related to losing customers (not delivering product or service on time). START good habits (improve customer service). And of course… start on online marketing campaign already!!! Of course I want to work with you but maybe we aren’t the right fit. And if we aren’t the right fit, explore other avenues that are a better match, more affordable or work for you on your own schedule. Read up on some of my old writings about Internet marketing (WebsiteStrategyMarketing.com) and watch my marketing videos on YouTube (youtube.com/user/salemglobalcom) get a college intern to help you out. And if you can’t afford to hire a firm, email me and I will lead you to some great tutorials that might get you started. Join LinkedIn groups. Facebook. Set up your social media profiles. Buy domain names. Build blogs. And write about your company. Promote yourself and have your friends and family spread the word. (That’s word of mouth marketing you know). And have fun…

Which leads me to reflect upon this past year of writing about Internet and website marketing. For most people, writing is a chore. For me it is cathartic. And not only that, it keeps me on my toes and makes sure that I am growing as a professional every day, week, month and year. One of the top things I learned this year is that most of my audience relates to sports. When I started including sports and celebrity into my writing, my readership grew. I was also able to connect and analogize sports and game theory to website marketing.

My latest book I have been reading is Moneyball by Michael Lewis. I found it after I read the Blind Side which caught my attention because of the movie. I haven’t seen the movie but the book was awesome. Moneyball lead me to read “Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life.” All about Michael Lewis’ Coach Fritz who more taught his teams about growing up and becoming a man (I don’t know if he ever coached women’s sports) than the actual game of baseball. And then when kids grew into men, only then did they REALLY understand how to play and win baseball games. My father passed away this summer and in my eulogy I spoke about a similar experience I had when I was younger. I was a pretty good athlete and played on a little league team. I remember my father and I were having a catch and he was throwing the ball REALLY hard at me. I don’t recall the conversation that took place because my father was not much of a talker. As I like to say, he was “all action and no talk.” In thinking about our catch though, in the beginning I had a fear of the ball. What my father was teaching me was not only how to catch a fastball and gain confidence but also how to take whatever is thrown at you in life and just deal with it. There is more but I will save it for another time…

Thank you all for reading and sticking with me throughout all these years. I really appreciate all of your support and feedback. May we all be blessed with much success and profit in the New Year (The Jewish one, the Gregorian one, the Chinese one. I don’t care And if you want to know more about the Jewish New Year, please consult your rabbi or the Internet. If you want to know more about Internet marketing, please email me or call me. But not this week lol… email me at raphis@salemglobal.com, call my office at 212-993-5828 or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. The call and consultation are free, but you might make millions from my theories so don’t forget

Website Marketing Manhattan, Father’s Day, Lady Gaga vs. NY Yankees & WVOX Westchester: What your business can learn from family get togethers, skimpy uniforms and local radio

Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Jun 22, 2010

Did anyone get a chance to see the outfit that Lady Gaga wore to last week’s New York Yankee’s game?  There are some rumors flying around that she then “snuck in” to the Yankee Clubhouse or locker room. (Um. Did anyone notice what she was wearing? Somehow I don’t think a half-naked woman needs to, nor can she, “sneak in” anywhere. MAYBE she was escorted in or sweet talked her way in but I guarantee you there was no sneaking.) Anyway, the blogs that I read this week claimed that she was then thrown out or even banned from the Yankees locker room since it was the wrong place and wrong time. The Yanks hadn’t been doing so well so it wasn’t exactly a “pick me up” sort of moment. But then the blogs read that celebrities (and scantily clad ones especially) are ALWAYS invited and certainly no one is banned. But the undertone was “please make sure to come on a winning night….

This past Sunday was Father’s Day so Happy Father’s Day out there to all… Either you – or your own Father. I celebrated by hanging out with my Dad and kids on Long Island and playing softball with my Westchester friends. Professionally speaking though, the question is, who capitalized on the keywords “Father’s Day” in the search engines?

The answer I see are retail shops and non-profits. Obviously people are looking up Father’s Day to either buy their father a gift or find out more information about the holiday. But let’s be real here. As we all know, Hallmark and the greeting card industry created these holidays because as the saying goes… “EVERY DAY is Father’s Day (and Mother’s Day and…) So by default, if you are selling something that is good for any Man over the age of 40, Father’s Day is a good keyword. If you change the keyword phrase search to “fathers day gift” you then come up with the full 11 paid spots (3 on top and 8 on the right) filled with advertising. Picture books, DVD players, hot air balloon rides, donations, watches and of course ties are all up there. Plan now for next year. Maybe you will get some organic search results instead of having to pay the premium Google PPC rates.

Finally, just wanted to give a shout out to my colleague Katherine Mckee at www.CoCommunications.com. Kat introduced me to WVOX and Peter Moses, a veteran newspaper professional who now has his own boutique PR firm (Moses Communications) and local Westchester newspaper (www.westchester-eye.com) I have always believed that an integrated marketing program and holistic approach to advertising will yield the greatest result for your budget. Check out these firms whether you are in Westchester or not. You will be glad you did. Thanks for having me on the show. I appreciated the air time and look forward to working with them in the near future.

If you are a local or national business and want to get your name out there, get friendly with your local radio station. You will be very surprised at how much clout they have. Coupled with a website, anyone can really drive in more business with this powerful combination. If you want to know more, give me a call at 212-993-5828, email raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information.

Internet Marketing NYC, Home Runs, BBQs and Motorcylces; What your business can learn from Memorial Day Weekend with family & friends

Posted by Salem Global on Jun 1, 2010

There seems to be a split in the good ole US of A between people who “celebrate” Memorial Day vs. the people who actually “memorialize.” My Father served in the US Army and even was in the Korean War. (Ask me sometime what he did privately and I will be happy to share it with you. It’s a good story.) He never once mentioned to me (during the 40 years that I have known him), anything about his fallen comrades. He never really opened up to me how dangerous it was or that some guy or guys he knew in basic training or any of his friends have ever died or even suffered any casualties. On the other hand, my great uncle was actually a POW in WWII. He had been in the air force and his B17 bomber I guess went down in enemy territory. If he were alive today he would talk about his experiences in the war. 20 years ago a movie came out called “Memphis Belle” that touched upon his story. He would tell everyone to watch that movie. I don’t remember if I did or not but now that I am writing about it, maybe I will… (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS3AQepBW-g)

I would be lying to you if I didn’t admit to personally being in the camp that leans towards celebrating. Sure, I think about Memorial Day intellectually. I think about all of the wars that the US has been involved in and the fallen soldiers who went down in them. Movies, books and media bring war, its horror and glory to the masses. TV shows like MASH give us insight into the Korean War. Movies like Born On the 4th of July with Tom Cruise and Forest Gump with Tom Hanks, Saving Private Ryan with Matt Damon (and a hundred other A-list actors); The Dirty Dozen with Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Charles Bronson give us insight into Vietnam and World War Two. So when you actually stop and think about it, there are plenty of people to thank during Memorial Day weekend. What did you do? Did you put a flag out in front of your house? Did you put a printout on the front door of your apartment? Did you put a candle in the window? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFP5afPweVI)

I played two games of softball (hooray for me, I got my first home run of the season… we still got blown out of the water 25-3 or something like that), had a BBQ at my sisters house, played poker with some friends and did some running. I am also looking for a new car and as you all well know, every auto dealership has a Memorial Day sale. Every supermarket has hot dogs and hamburgers on sale because it’s Memorial Day which also marks the beginning of summer. So while most people are going to the beach or having barbecues, I would say that we are not at parades celebrating our freedom here in America or honoring the fallen as much as we are at the Thanksgiving Day Parade watching float after commercial float. Kudos to my friend that actually went with her family down to Washington DC and visited the Vietnam Memorial amongst other sites. She also reported to me that she got to witness the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Parade (here is the 2010 eyewitness report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brX-UyrWQKU)

So we learn from this that Memorial Day actually has several meanings. Your business can benefit from the beginning of summer by attaching your name to the words “Memorial Day,” add in the year (2010) and make a special sales or “awareness” page on your website. You can say that your company “honors those who have served in the armed forces this weekend.” Whether it is sincere or not, Google and the search engines don’t really care. But regardless, if you put the correct keywords into your meta data, and also have a special graphic or text on your website, you will show up higher in the search engines when people are searching. And if you are indeed sincere, you might also be able to score a sale from patriotic Americans that want to buy from those who support the Red, White and Blue.

Want to know more? Call me at 212-993-5828, email raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. Let me know if you want to talk more about America, the weekend and how to promote your business through the Internet this summer. It’s gonna be a hot one!

Internet Marketing in NYC, The Olympics and Fashion Week: What Your Business Can Learn From 97 Million TV Viewers, Doritos and Your Own Events

Posted by Salem Global on Feb 16, 2010

Its snowing in New York City and it is beautiful. As I write this week’s piece, there is a heavy downfall over Bryant Park outside my office window. And of course, it’s February. We shouldn’t be getting this much snow. But whether you believe in global warming or just the universe and weather, its here. And it leads me to talk about the Winter Olympics.

97 million US viewers tuned in to watch the first 2 days of the Olympics this year. That’s close to the 100 million that tuned in in 1994 when U.S. figure skater Tonya Harding’s ex-husband and bodyguard attacked Nancy Kerrigan. I also read that if every Chinese household watches the Olympics, that’s over 1 billion viewers right there.

But no matter how many people watch the Olympics on TV, it still will never compare to the amount of people who will tune in via the Internet on home and office computers. Sad thing is, according to Bloomberg (businessweek.com), Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE has said NBC will lose $250 million airing the Vancouver Winter Olympics (ok – not really THAT sad). Darn it. Why hasn’t NBC called me yet to help them with Internet strategy! HOPEFULLY they make that money back by airing things on YouTube and Hulu and on their own site. Interestingly enough, 183,000 views have been recorded just to the commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUlJahUtm04 for the Vancouver, BC, Canadian 2010 Winter Olympics. I predict that for actual content and clips of various events and happenings, the true number will far exceed a measly 100 million. I would say at least a billion for US and then billions more worldwide. And if the various media vehicles monetize correctly, it should spell out to gross much more than the $250million lost on the antiquated boob-tube.

And just to keep things in perspective, 2 weeks ago I reported on Super Bowl commercials. It appears that the winner in this race is the spot for Doritos named “House Rules” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0EVSP_6XZA). But wait, there’s more. Doritos didn’t even create the commercial. If you check out the site crashthesuperbowl.com, you will see that these commercials were created for free. All user-generated content. Doritos paid for it with a $25,000 contest for the 6 finalists. Then one of them gets an additional $1m, $600k and $400k. Basically, instead of paying an advertising agency millions of dollars, they are throwing it back to the work out of your house creative geniuses who don’t work for corporate America 9-5. (On the other hand, maybe they DO work in a corporate job and did this in their spare time and made a cool $25k – $1mm in their spare time.

My point is that the Internet keeps on winning out as the best way to market your product. Get fans of your product to sell your product for you. And reward the people who make it happen. There are plenty of terrible commercials (and websites) out there, created, written and produced by huge advertising agencies for millions of dollars. If advertisers want to get the biggest bang for their buck, they will listen to me and rely on the web to sell their product with smart Internet marketing managers (hopefully me and my company And as my new sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer says, “you need poll your own audience.” He suggests creating a seminar and inviting all of your customers. And whether they can come or not, ask your customers why they buy from you. You will be very happily surprised to get these answers. Then obviously use this information to get new customers and buyers of your products and services.

It’s also the 2010 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week here in New York, NY in Bryant Park. As I watch model after supermodel get in and out of taxis on my block, I realize that they have a pretty good thing going on. Each year, fashion designers from all over the world come to my house (ok, across the street from my office) and strut their stuff on the runway. Once again, if you think that it’s about the event, think again. When I searched for “2010 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week,” Marc Bouwer comes up with the #1 video with over 40,000 views. I guarantee you that Marc is having a great show this year!

So my message this week is to think about the short term with the long term marketing in mind. Photograph your events. Video them. Write about them. Blog about them. Oh. Did you say that you don’t have any events going on? Well then, CREATE them! Can’t think of an event to create, borrow one from the newspaper, current events, the sports section or the calendar. In addition to the Olympics and Fashion week, this week is the beginning of Baseball Spring Training. And it was also Valentine’s Day and President’s Day and the Daytona 500.

Need help figuring out a long term, short term or event driven NYC Internet Marketing strategy, give me a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or visit www.SalemGlobal.com. I will guarantee we will come up with something in 5 minutes of having a conversation. Next week we will talk more about the Olympics, content and Internet strategy. Oh and my latest book, Slackonomics by Lisa Chamberlain.

Internet Marketing, Football and Poker: What We Can Learn from 2 Minute Warnings, Sudden Death, Flops, Turns and Rivers

Posted by Salem Global on Dec 28, 2009

Did anyone see the NY Giants football game yesterday? I didn’t. But between Facebook and my poker game last night it was hard to avoid hearing how terribly the Giants fell. This week is your last chance to make things happen in 2009. This is your 2 minute warning, your sudden death and your RIVER card all in one. Huh? What am I talking about? Read on marching soldier…

A 2 minute warning is footballs way of saying there are 2 minutes left in the game so you better move faster, stronger and get your head in the game because at this point you don’t have any more time to strategize. It is now time to act. It’s now or never.

Sudden death takes place in overtime and means that the next point wins. If the 2 minute warning didn’t get your head in the game, sudden death should.

In poker you get a chance to see community cards three times. First comes the FLOP where you get to see the first 3 community cards. Then comes the TURN that can make or break you. The RIVER decides who wins and what will be the best hand on the board.

Internet marketing can be compared to football and poker amongst many other things. Basically you need to set up a short term and long term strategy. You will not get results overnight. You have to be patient, budget your money and time accordingly and then strike when the iron is hot. Many companies lose faith in their marketing. This can be compared to the football players that give up in the second half when they are down in the first. They still have a chance during the 2 minute warning but psychologically they might be finished. Similarly, people lose when they fold pre-flop, after the FLOP or TURN even though they might have the best hand at the RIVER. They lose faith in their cards, themselves and get bullied out of winning the pot. These people need to learn the odds. They need to learn that long term thinking wins.

So my message to you for this last post of 2009 is not to ever give up hope. Keep on truckin’ as we used to say. Next year in 2010 we will all be doing a little bit better. One of the first poker lessons I ever learned was that poker winners do not win every hand. Warriors do not win every battle, but they DO win the war. Superbowl champions don’t go 16-0 during the season (ok ok there is 1 exception to this statement).

Instead of going out in a blaze of glory, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0UzG-Gc7II
or Thelma and Louise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z88U915uq8

…be more like Jackie Chan in “Young Master”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiyJkIn1Nn0

And remember, not to lose faith in yourself, your family, your friends, your company, the economy… you get the picture.

Want to know more about Internet marketing, football, poker or martial arts movies? Give me a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or visit www.SalemGlobal.com. Next week we get back to the 21 basics of Internet marketing. Evaluating your website for improvement.

Happy New Year Everyone!
Raphi Salem