Internet Marketing, China Traffic, Mexico’s Miss Universe and Making $100,000 on YouTube: What your business can learn from traffic trends, viral videos and beauty contests
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Aug 24, 2010
Internet marketing is all about driving traffic to your website. At SalemGlobal we excel at driving traffic to our website as well as our client’s sites. Unfortunately we can not help the poor drivers in China who have had traffic for over a week. But the wrong kind of traffic. The drivers outside of Beijing have been stuck in a traffic jam that has lasted nine days and is over 100 kilometers long. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100823/sc_afp/chinaroadtraffic) Now we can’t promise to drive that much traffic to your site overnight but if you follow the advice of this blog then you will no doubt see your traffic increase over time.
One way to do this is through YouTube. If you read this blog regularly then you know that we fully support the use of YouTube to drive traffic to your site but if you still don’t believe us ask the people who make over $100,000 annually just by creating YouTube videos and putting ads on them. http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/meet-the-youtube-stars-making-100000-plus-per-year-535349.html.
Another way to drive traffic to your site is to purchase domain names related to your business’ keywords and build blogs and marketing sites on them. They don’t have to be complete sites that have all your information on them. It’s not a beauty contest (like the Miss Universe contest won by Mexico’s Jimena Navarrete http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100824 /people_nm/us_missuniverse), the site doesn’t have to be beautiful it just needs to exist and be found by the search engines.
For example Millennium Personnel Corp (www.MPC-NYC.com) is a New York based staffing agency and resume writers. They’re main keywords are resume, personnel staffing and office support. So they purchased these domain names: nycpersonnel.com, newyorkcityresume.com, staffingny.net and officesupportnewyorkcity.com and put a blog on each one. These blogs are not only helpful to their applicants and clients but also help to drive traffic to their main site since every blog post ends with “for more information check out our main site…” and if this sounds familiar…
To find out how to use YouTube, blogs and domain names to drive more traffic to your site check out www.SalemGlobal.com, send Raphi an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or give us a call at 212-993-5828.
Internet Marketing NYC, Preseason Football Depth Charts and Fake Videos: What your business can learn from meaningless football games
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Aug 17, 2010
Well it’s August and for a lot of the country that means Football season is right around the corner. This was on full display last night as the New York Giants and the NY Jets opened up their brand new, $1.6 billion stadium in the Meadowlands by playing against each other for naming rights for the new stadium. Not actually though, that will probably cost a lot more just ask the “dating” site AshleyMadison.com (AshleyMadison.com gives Giants and Jets $25 million offer to put name on New Meadowlands Stadium). Anyways, the first (preseason) game has been played and won by the Giants even though quarterback Eli Manning was knocked out of the game when he collided with another player and cut his head open. There was a lot of blood on the field but he’ll be fine. But the point is the Giants recovered and won without their starting quarterback.
The lesson we can learn from this is that in order for your business to succeed you need to be “deep at every position”. In football you can’t just have one great player at each position, you need to have great back ups too. That way when a starter goes down, you can plug in the next guy on the depth chart and hopefully there isn’t a huge drop off in production. The same applies to your website marketing strategy. You need to utilize a variety of techniques when marketing your website. That way when one of them isn’t doing so well, you can fall back on all the others.
For example, Gerrus Maintenance (www.Gerrus.com) is a NJ based cleaning company that does office cleaning, residential cleaning and mold remediation. For all the hours put in to linking they were not registering many incoming links on Google. But they have also been focusing on many other SEO practices like building pages, social media profiles and blogging. All this has added up to being in the top spot for many of their industry’s keywords and a lot of traffic to their site.
Now, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t focus on getting links to your site, you should. But it’s not the be all and end all. Gerrus Maintenance puts hours into linking but they are smart enough to know that you have to more than just one type of internet marketing. Divide your time evenly, spend some time doing linking, spend some time creating or updating social media profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc), spend some time making videos, spend some time writing content for your site and your blog. It all adds up and there is always something you can/should be doing. If you need some ideas check out the 21 Things You Should Be Doing Online (http://websitestrategymarketing.com/its-2010-wake-up-and-smell-the-internet-21-things-you-should-be-doing-online)
Last week we talked about the viral video of a ball girl making an incredible catch in the outfield at a minor league baseball game. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1liNz3QsAc) After last week’s post we did some research and discovered that it was, unfortunately, not real. According to Snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/ballgirl.asp) the whole thing was staged by Gatorade to use in a commercial. Oh well. Still a cool video but now it’s even more relevant to Internet Marketing because now I can talk about how smart Gatorade is for posting this commercial on the Internet to further promote their brand.
If you want to know more about creating your internet marketing depth chart, producing viral (real or fake) videos or any of the 21 Things send us an email at raphis@salemglobal.com, call our office at 212-993-5828 or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information.
Website Marketing NY, Quit Your Day Job (At JetBlue Airlines) But Don’t Forget The Beer, A-Rod Hits 600: What your business can learn from newsworthy bridge burning
Posted by Salem Global on Aug 10, 2010
As the Grateful Dead said: “I’m going to Hell in a bucket baby, but at least I’m enjoying the ride…” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIwSaOBHinQ) Thus said the JetBlue Employee of the century, flight attendant Steven Slater, after getting hit in the head by a piece of luggage that an impatient passenger on flight 1052 arriving from Pittsburgh to New York’s JFK Airport couldn’t wait to get down. But the way that it all went down was so classic that it is already being called “pulling a JetBlue.” So awesome that after arguing with the specific passenger, Slater then got on the PA system, said some profanities, cursed out everyone in the plane and just like James Bond, activated the emergency exit chute, and ran away down the tarmac, through the terminal, onto the bus, into his car and headed for home. But wait – it gets better. I am not exactly sure how this was reported and what Slater was thinking, but the climax of this whole story was that right before he made his dramatic departure, he actually grabbed a couple of beers on the way out. Now tell me folks, is there ANY better way to quit your job?
And tell me folks, don’t you think that as of this writing there are no fewer than 782 related articles when you search for “JetBlue” in Google news? And more blogs and articles are definitely coming. This is almost as good as when Kevin Smith of Clerks/ Silent Bob fame Twittered about being called fat on a Southwest Airlines flight. Social media and the web have done wonders for businesses large and small. And remember it doesn’t all have to be good news. Just news. As the old PR saying goes, any PR is good PR. Just realize how viral this story has gone in the last 24 hours and how much more it will go in the next 24 hours…
So your business should be creative and try to figure out what is going to really shock the world. What do you think that is? I am talking about Ripley’s Believe It Or Not material. This is your homework for the week. What can your company do or stage to get news coverage so vast that everyone is talking about it. That will get more hits to your website than you can imagine. JetBlue is a good company. This guy just got fed up. That’s all. No real harm done. I am sure flight attendants get hit every day in the head. Even more get cursed out. But today’s story takes the cake. There is a debate in my office whether this video is real or not: What do YOU think? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvxodp-GpFA.
Book of the week: “All In: The (Almost) Entirely True Story of the World Series of Poker” by Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback – http://www.amazon.com/All-Almost-Entirely-Story-World/dp/0312360371/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281458326&sr=1-8 – Making me think a little more about how I play my own poker hands. Your business can learn a lot about marketing and business development from this book. Taking risks and chances. Leveraging what you have…
Finally, yes. Alex Rodriguez has indeed joined the 600 club, but I have never NEVER seen a ballgirl (or boy) do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1liNz3QsAc – Did I mention that this was a ball girl? Oh yeah – the way that I got to this video was because Masato Akamatsu of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp also made an impressive catch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYdpBNonxA4. (But NOT AS IMPRESSIVE AS A BALL GIRL!!!) Ok – last one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW0bb2wxH5Y, Brian Kownacki Leaps The Catcher for safe at home plate. Btw – check out CORRECT use of YouTube description with the url: http://www.sportingnews.com
So if you want to know more about writing true or false stories about your company, having them go viral, how to promote these stories to the benefit of your company and using social media to get the message out, 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, the benefits could be priceless. (Thanks to Alan in my Tuesday morning Westchester networking group for that tagline – I like it).
Website Marketing Manhattan, Mazel Tov Chelsea Clinton, A-Rod 600, Kohl’s $10 Million, Eat Pray Love, Drink, Play, F@#k: What your business can learn, and take from the larger players
Posted by Salem Global on Aug 3, 2010
So what have I really learned this week about website marketing? Not too much. But then I got a Facebook request to vote for my friend’s school to win $10 million dollars through Kohl’s. A retail store here in Westchester – and probably around the country as well. Now THIS is the way to use social media. Kids. Schools. Money. A winning combination. Please vote for my kids’ school: http://apps.facebook.com/KohlsCares/school/1227181/solomon-schechter-sch-westchtr-lower. This is one of the best examples of huge fortune companies using the web to get more exposure and ultimately increase sales in all of their stores. It is WELL worth $10,000,000. That’s TEN MILLION DOLLARS folks. That got my attention. And now I am promoting it to you and every single school friend and alumnus that I know. That’s word of mouth marketing at its finest. Money talks and on the web, talk is cheap. My kids’ school has been around, I think, for 30 years and if I can get a fraction of those people on Facebook and vote for my kids school to win, that will be an extra $500,000 in our annual budget this year. So please vote for my kids’ school. I would very much appreciate it. Thanks.
Last week I picked up the book on CD “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. It’s a sad story about a woman who goes through a divorce, depression and then travels to Italy, Indonesia and India for a year. I am only on the 3rd CD so I don’t know how it ends but I can tell you that so far it is excellent and I highly recommend the CD because she has a beautiful voice and to hear her speaking Italian on the CD as opposed to reading the book is really an added bonus. I also guarantee you that the book is 1 million times better than the Julia Roberts movie that will be coming out next week. Movies NEVER do a book justice. Related to this, please do not see the Leonardo DiCaprio movie Inception. I was totally duped by the advertising that called it “James Bond meets the Matrix.” It was more like nobody meets nobody and it’s all a dream within a dream and it mostly all sucks. Yes, there was some action (but no fun James Bond girl sex) but it didn’t make any sense at all and wasn’t exciting for me. I am honestly surprised that DiCaprio would do a movie like this since he usually has better taste…. Yes – Titanic was probably better than Inception… though I didn’t see it. I still have to see Shutter Island since I read that book – which was great.
And then on Friday my friend asked me if I also read “Drink, Play, F@#k.” I thought it was a joke up until my other friend, Google, took me to http://www.amazon.com/Drink-Play-Anything-Ireland-Thailand/dp/0802170528 and realized that it indeed was real. “Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man’s Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand”, by Andrew Gottlieb is next on my list.
Btw. I got a lot of slack for the New York Mets game that I attended last week. Its one thing to make fun of the Mets for being losers but it’s another to not recognize that going to Citi Field is an experience in and of itself. First I have to thank Alan Berkson of Infomanage (www.InfoManage.net) for the tickets. Second, I have to say that the legroom where I was sitting was more comfortable than any other stadium I have ever been to. Third, if you are bringing kids to a game, it was totally worth it to take a walk behind the outfield with my kids and have them try to dunk the guy into the water, take batting practice and play wiffle ball on a miniature baseball diamond. Oh. And the Mets won that night as well.
Which leads me to A-Rod’s quest for 600 Home Runs. It seems like people aren’t so excited about this since he might be taking steroids. So I ask you… who ISN’T taking steroids in professional sports? So the questions in sports lately have been: is it ok to take steroids and should salaries be capped? Perhaps these are related?
I happened to have been visiting my sister in Poughkeepsie this past weekend when I happened to notice that Chelsea Clinton married her longtime boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky one town over in Rhinebeck. (I did not receive an invitation.) I had some political thoughts related to this but so far have been keeping this blog politic free so you will have to ping me offline to get more opinions. I just want to know if the chicken soup and knaidlach were up to par?
Lastly, SalemGlobal took the night off and visited our client www.StandUpNY.com last Wednesday night and a good time was had by all. http://websitestrategymarketing.com/salemglobal-staff-at-stand-up-new-york-comedy-club
So what has your business learned from the above? First – Facebook rules. Get your company a social media strategy or call me to figure it out. Second. Big names draw big traffic. Chelsea Clinton. A-Rod. I don’t make this stuff up. Use the power of the Internet and social media to reach new audiences and stay in touch with them. Want to know more about internet marketing for your business or non-profit, email me at raphis@salemglobal.com, call my office at 212-993-5828 or check out www.SalemGobal.com for more information.
Website Marketing New York City, New York Mets, Armstrong’s Tour De France, Non-Profits Profiting: What your business and non-profit can learn from loyalty
Posted by Salem Global on Jul 27, 2010
So I am headed to the NY Mets baseball game tonight and each person I tell this to asks me the same thing… “How’s your arm? They might need you as a relief pitcher. Or maybe a starting one.” I answer that I am a better hitter than pitcher. To which they reply, “well then they could use a few hits too.” OUCH. Are there any Mets fans out there? Who actually like the team? (Shout outs to Alan Berkson of www.InfoManage.net – for all of your outsourced IT needs – thanks for the tickets, and to Bruce Stark of www.beaconpaint.com 371 Amsterdam Ave, UWS NYC. Bruce has as his profile picture on Facebook a picture himself in a Mets uniform after he takes a swing. Not sure if its baseball or softball but it looks cool. He will be joining me tonight at Citi Field. I actually missed my softball game this past Sunday. These 90 degree mornings burn out – literally – the older guys.) It takes a lot to be a Met fan. Someone I know said to me once upon a time that if I grew up on Long Island, I HAD to be a Met fan. He asked, “Where’s your loyalty?” With Steinbrenner dying and having paid hundreds of millions of dollars to create and retain a team that has won so many pennants and World Series, the Yankees organization has their act together. Unfortunately, the Mets haven’t had the billionaire budget or possibly the marketing smarts to retain a team or a fan base to make them contenders. I mean, when was the last time they won anyway? I remember the 69′ Mets, but for some reason, the orange and blue color scheme isn’t bringing up so many fond memories. (Ok – now I have cheated and am reminded that pitcher Tom Seaver was the 1969 Cy Young Award winner, Keith Hernandez was the 1987 Gold Glove award winner and a few others were Mets albeit briefly.)
The point is that the Mets have not thrown in the towel. They did indeed win two World Series titles and fans for the most part are loyal. We had a discussion last week whether a salary cap should be introduced in baseball. Would players be motivated by fame and glory without the fortune? I think you should get paid what you are worth. But then again, who is to say that capping will decrease the advancement of the sport or not. Will players not try harder without the financial motivation? I don’t think we will ever get a controlled fair answer.
Which leads to wondering whether my friend Robert Remin is correct in saying that “no one cares about the Tour De France.” Last week I wrote about Lance Armstrong and though he is not a rock star football player, he still is a huge celebrity, especially after dating Sheryl Crow and Kate Hudson. Armstrong, regardless of whether he is a “douchebag” or not (what some people say alleging that he used steroids to win all of his 7 Tours) is an amazing individual and athlete considering the fact that PLENTY of other people use drugs to win at sports. But how many undergo cancer, cancer treatment, live to tell the world about it and then start non-profit organizations that raise hundreds of millions of dollars toward cancer research. (www.LiveStrong.com) The fact that Team Radio Shack had the number 23 on its back throughout the tour honoring the 23 million people who battle cancer in this country says to me that Armstrong is doing good in this world. He uses Twitter to get his message out.
Which leads me to remind you all of an amazing partner over the past few years. Since I met www.EvasVillage.org several years ago, I have come to learn that they are amazing at feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, medicating the sick and treating the addicted. Eva’s Village, located in Paterson, NJ started out small and grew and grew to not only work with the local poor and hungry, but have branched out to help thousands and thousands on the streets. Year after year, they too “stick with it” and do incredible charity work. Please consider a donation to their organization this year. In addition to standard SEO practices and blogging, our strategy for them has been interactive press releases and they have profited from this year after year.
So what has your business or non-profit learned from the above? First – loyalty rules. Get a customer and/or supporter, nurture them, and they will contribute for life. Second. Use the power of the Internet and social media to reach new audiences and stay in touch with them. Want to know more about internet marketing for your business or non-profit, email me at raphis@salemglobal.com, call my office at 212-993-5828 or visit www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. The summer is half over and that means that I am going to be even busier once the school year rolls around.
Internet Marketing New York, Do Facebook, YouTube &/or Social Media Work For Business? I Bet Old Spice, Southwest Airlines and Radio Shack Say Yes! Squeeze and Lance Armstrong Ride Again
Posted by Salem Global on Jul 22, 2010
Last Thursday evening I was working late (ok it wasn’t THAT late) in my New York City office when my good friend (and business insurance agent) Seth Jonas (http://sjonasinsurance.com/) posted on Facebook that Squeeze was in Bryant Park. So I stroll over to my conference room window that overlooks Bryant Park and see a sea of people in Yoga clothing doing a down dog. I try calling Seth but it goes to voicemail. So I text him and he says its near the Southwest Airlines kiosk. His brother Barry got me onto the VIP list for a special intimate secret concert at the last second. So do I think social media and Facebook can work for business? Absolutely!
Who benefits from little “tweets” Facebook and LinkedIn updates? Well, that all depends on how you are using them. True, most social media today is certainly used by college kids telling their friends that they are going to get a slice of pizza off campus or that someone is at a concert or questions like “is anyone still in the dorm room than can bring me my wallet. Students and young adults, the majority of the 500 million Facebook users, probably use it the most. But now that businesses are starting to wake up to word of mouth media, big business is benefiting. If small and medium size businesses catch on, they will be able to compete with the big guns.
Southwest airlines has a bar and outdoor lounge area at the edge of Bryant Park on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Fortieth Street. They opened their doors this past spring and the place has been packed ever since. But I thought it was just a sandwich place and bar. Little did I realize that it actually has corporate sponsorship. Smart! An organization called “artists den” has been signing up big old popular bands to play venues all over and even get broadcast on national TV. So it all came together when my friend Seth updated his Facebook profile and I heard the message. And the message was loud and clear. I brought my FlipCam to the show and got some good footage before I was told that I couldn’t record anymore. Check out their opening number “black coffee in bed” here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5zxy5laHCQ. So far there are 10 views. I guarantee this will shoot up past the 100 mark and will become one of my biggest viral videos out of the 226 that I have put together. And just to make you a bit jealous, yes – they played all of their old hits; Tempted, Slap and Tickle, Annie Get Your Gun, Cool For Cats, Another Nail In My Heart, Is That Love, and I think they ended with Pulling Muscles From A Shell.
So who benefits from this situation? Squeeze promotes their old name and new album. The Artists Den, Southwest Airlines, Wichcraft (sandwich place), YouTube, my insurance agent, and me. But when I post my video to YouTube, so do the advertisers that tag on to my video. And when I blog and tweet about it, the advertisers benefit as well. So content is king in terms of being the driving force behind your advertising. But don’t be fooled. You need to create that content in order to benefit from it.
And speaking of YouTube content, Old Spice is back on millions of people’s radar due to their BRILLIANT campaign on YouTube over the last 2 weeks. http://www.youtube.com/user/oldspice?v=uLTIowBF0kE&feature=pyv&ad=5066079497&kw=old%20spice%20commercial&gclid=CLnn1ozl-aICFQR75QodaQf1_Q (Over 9.7 million views) Now granted I personally haven’t used Old Spice since receiving some around my Bar Mitzvah in 1983. (Maybe I got some for Hanukkah in 85 or 86). But if you watch TV, they have had some funny commercials throughout the years. But whoever thought of a campaign to have an actor (and a “ridiculously handsome” former NFL Football player) on call 24/7 responding to Twitter and YouTube comments absolutely wins the social media race of the month. And the writers on staff at the same time coming up with creative responses to famous celebrities and actors and pop culture icons will go down in history. Check out the Alyssa Milano Twitter and video responses (http://www.alyssa.com/news/here-is-what-to-do-next-mr-old-spice/), the hilarious Old Spice response bringing back Milano’s 11 year old adolescent Tony Danza Who’s The Boss TV days (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oElH6M_5i4) and the final video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFDqvKtPgZo (over 2.6 million views). And just as Old Spice is benefitting, so is Milano’s career and the charities that she supports. She was able to raise $90,000 on her birthday through her fans. Wow! Let’s see how much she can raise by tagging on to the Old Spice campaign.
Finally, for all of you Livestrong yellow rubber bracelet people out there who wish they could ride a bike like the wind, RadiosShack benefits from sponsoring Lance Armstrong and the people who ride with him. At the 16th stage of the 21 stage, 2200 mile, Tour De France, Lance is in the 31st position while the other Americans are Christopher Horner in position 21 and Levi Leipheimer is in 7th place http://www.letour.fr/2010/TDF/LIVE/us/1500/classement/index.html
Books of the week – Fiction – The Blind Side by Michael Lewis and Non-Fiction – On Selling, by Mark H. McCormack and Burn Rate by Michael Wolff. Movies – The Vagina Monologues and Y Tu Mamá También. (Yes a racy week for the 9 days huh?)
If you want to know more about Old Spice YouTube, Facebook, squeeze, books I have read, movies I have watched and/or social media for your business, call me at 212-993-5828 or email me at info@salemglobal.com to set up a conversation or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. Or even better, come to one of my events. My exclusive networking group is meeting this Thursday at 5WPR in midtown.
Internet Marketing NYC, LeBron James Heats Up Miami, NY Yankees Steinbrenner Dead at 80, Beautiful Rainbows: What your business can learn from sports legends and viral video
Posted by Salem Global on Jul 13, 2010
There’s only 1 thing that can ruin my regular friendly poker game. No – not a bad flop. Nope, not my friend’s quads beating out my full house. It’s a ridiculous hour of LeBron James hour-long TV special on ESPN. Come on people. It’s like a Christmas special in July. Wait – that’s EXACTLY what it was. But that’s the advertising and media for you. Why just make an announcement when you can go on TV, get paid by a network and have advertisers and sponsors foot the bill. Because WE, the consumers actually foot the bill. Thinking about it now, I should’ve paid more attention to the advertisers during the hour long special. My guess is that it was all beer, cars and shavers. While my poker friends were betting team jerseys and numbers (23 – James and Michael Jordan), I took advantage by focusing on my OWN game. Let’s just say that though Miami will be paying James $11 – $15 Million dollars next year, I came home with an extra $20 bucks in my pocket… that paid for beer and hot dogs for the SalemGlobal Internet staff at Rudy’s Bar & Grill on 9th Avenue and 44th. (http://websitestrategymarketing.com/salemglobal-staff-summer-2010) So who ELSE is the big winner huh?!?
It got me thinking about the true ROI (Return On Investment) one player actually brings to a team. Well, considering how much an average ticket to a sports event costs these days $30 – $60 per game. Multiplied by how many seats in a stadium or arena? Plus don’t forget box seats, lounges, food, beverages, sponsorships and the list goes on for moneymaking opportunities in the billion dollar industry of sports marketing… Yeah – why not. It’s only another $15 million dollars. But as I understand it, it truly wasn’t so much about the money anymore. I think I read that the Chicago Bulls were actually offering even MORE money. And the Cleveland Cavaliers were offer even MORE money than the Bulls! It had to do with actually winning a championship. Similar to what do you get for the person who has it all? You get them something more special than a material possession. In James’ case, he was looking for a ring – but not the one you can buy. I guess he sincerely believes (or maybe his agent does) that Miami offers the greatest hope for a championship. By the way, if you want to know who are the top paid athletes in the US – check out http://www.gkmen.com/sports/north-american-sports/who-are-highest-paid-athletes-2010190210. And if you want the international list, check out the following link for the #1 at $110 million. Here is a hint before you click on the link; he is a better driver on a course instead of his own driveway… http://www.mensweekly.net/2010/04/17/10-highest-paid-athletes-2/10/.
On a sad note, we lost a great one today. New York Yankees brilliant, charismatic character, (former) owner and frequently mentioned on Seinfeld, George Steinbrenner. I grew up with the Yankees and Steinbrenner has always been a huge personality in New York. But even outside of NY, Steinbrenner is known and will always be remembered as the guy who brought (and bought) greats like Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Catfish Hunter, Dave Winfield, Gooose Gossage, Joe Torre, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, Darryl Strawberry (and the list goes on) to New York. The Bronx Bombers won seven World Series titles and 11 American League pennants since Steinbrenner took the helm. He will surely be missed.
What does all this have to do with Internet Marketing? Sports marketing. Want to sell more product or services (mostly to men)? Start incorporating sports into some of your marketing. Need I say more?
Think stupid videos are just plain old stupid? 3,664,719 think so also. If you haven’t seen it already, check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI. And if you want to experience my sense of humor, please check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLSvEe7No_w. What does it mean? It means that anything can go viral on YouTube. But the real winners are the 4 kids – ok – young adults – who put together a song “honoring” the double rainbow video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0D4oZwCsA (1,966,418 views). Why aren’t they implementing the Google AdSense feature where they can make money every time someone clicks on an ad? I don’t know. But maybe they share in the ad revenue derived from the advertisement on the right? If your business isn’t utilizing video in your marketing approach, you should start. Your competitors are thinking about it right now.
Last comment for this week: Great book (and blog) www.WaiterRant.net. You will think very differently next time you eat out in a restaurant. Also started billion dollar IMG CEO Mark H. McCormack “On Selling.” Gives some good insight into the world of sales. Also reading Michael Wolff’s “Burn Rate.” It’s an “old” tale about the early days of the Internet from 1994 – 1998. It’s a fun read. It overlaps with the beginning of my career but it’s very relevant to all businesses and its written well.
Want to know more about sports marketing, website marketing and how video can help your business, give me a call at 212-993-5828 or email raphis@salemglobal.com to set up a conversation or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. Or even better, come to one of my events. We are taking it easy in August but we will be doing a full court press in September.
Website Marketing NY, July 4 and Prince: What your business can learn from holiday sales, beaches, BBQs, fireworks and being oblivious
Posted by Salem Global on Jul 6, 2010
One of my associates (Christopher) passed on a great article today. Prince, or the artist formerly known as Prince or now as I have learned, Love symbol #2 has granted an interview to Peter Willis of the British Daily Mirror. (http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/07/05/prince-world-exclusive-interview-peter-willis-goes-inside-the-star-s-secret-world-115875-22382552/) Prince basically lives in his own fantasy land in Minneapolis (yes folks Minneapolis, MN) and has built some sort of anti-celebrity fortress where no one else has. He isn’t the California punk that most celebrities turn into. He is super smart and super talented and super successful. I think he plays 27 instruments on his new album. He has sold over 100 million albums.
How many times do I personally say “we are going to party like its 1999?” Objectively speaking, I probably use this phrase at least once a week. Hurry up and listen or download from YouTube before it gets taken down because of copyright issues. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSqYAbBFhzc. By the way – here is some crazy trivia – What year was 1999 recorded and released? Answer will be at end of this writing.
Prince has always bucked the trend and the norm. He has been fighting the Internet and copyright issues forever and won’t distribute his music through iTunes or other electronic means. He thinks the Internet is like MTV – an old fad, and has even closed down his own official website. (Luckily you have me to steer you towards archived copies of his old websites here: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.npgmusicclub.com) So what can I tell you about his version of Internet marketing? I disagree. I think he has the wrong philosophy when it comes to marketing. The way to go is like the Grateful Dead and Phish and any band or outfit that allows you to record, bootleg and distribute as much as possible. When it comes to 2010, popularity and volume are the things that allow you to stand out from the crowd. Will Prince sell 100 million more albums by shunning the Internet? I don’t think so. He is giving away his new album, 20TEN in the Daily Mirror this Saturday. Why? I can’t tell you. I don’t think it’s smart. On the other hand, I am not trying to buck the trend…
As for not bucking the trend and getting your name out there, the winners of this year’s July 4th please take Raphi Salem’s hard earned spending money go out to Filene’s Basement and Syms. These two smart retailers not only had a July 4th sale, they had an extra 20% off with Internet coupons and a huge BASH! Meaning, sale on top of sale. While everyone else was having a ubiquitous Happy Birthday America! Sale, these stores and organizations went all out. They got people into their stores more than their competitors because they practically were giving clothing away. The way I see it is that Ben and Jerry’s has a free scoop of ice cream day, Starbucks has a free coffee day, Dunkin Donuts, Cold Stone Creamery and even Toys R Us and Chuck E Cheese have a “free” day. They spread the news like wildfire. These companies GET IT! Give it away for free for ONE MEASLY DAY and make a friend forever. Even people who come in once a day a year to get their free (fill in the blank) spread the word. That’s PR folks. That’s word of mouth marketing. And it’s majorly worth it. So while Prince might be dis-connected because he is 1 person who has millions in the bank, don’t be a fool and follow the Internet crowd. Get those coupons and promotions out today, this week, month and year…. through your website, blog, video and online press release through email. I guarantee you success!
If you are a local or national business and want to get your name out there, want to talk about Prince and bucking the norm, or tell me how hot it is outside, give me a call at 212-993-5828, email raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information. Answer to the trivia question: Prince’s 1999 was produced and distributed in 1982. Yes, you are old, and so am I 
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.
Website Marketing New York City, World Cup Soccer, The Millionaire Mind and Successful Intelligence: What your business can learn from sports and attitude
Posted by Salem Global on Jun 15, 2010
As close to 4 million people have viewed this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koVHN6eO4Xg – T.I. – Live Your Life (Featuring Rihanna) due to music, pop culture and the whole popular YouTube Internet and viral video sensation, I am curious why this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcAGTYVYV48 has only been viewed 75,000 times and the book “The Millionaire Mind” by Thomas J. Stanley (http://www.thomasjstanley.com) has ONLY sold 1 million copies. Dr. Thomas J. Stanley is an author, lecturer, and researcher who has studied the affluent since 1973. He’s also the author of the best-selling books The Millionaire Next Door and Marketing to the Affluent, which was selected one of then outstanding business books by the editors of Best of Business Quarterly. In his books he tells you specifically how the millionaires that he has studied have made their money. The latest part of the book that I was just listening to on CD (I usually take out the CD to listen to in my car since I do a lot of driving as well as take out the book from the library so that if I am taking public transportation I can review what I have listened to and obviously read and learn more), was all about a millionaire who grew up on a farm. His grandmother was a huge influence on him and made him an offer. She said if you milk the cow, I will give you a percentage of the profits that come from your efforts. He did his chores so well that he then took a percentage of the calves that he tended to as well. He then entered school and didn’t do so well. I might be mixing up stories but the basic gist of the book is when one of the interviewed millionaires said that he would’ve done much better in school had their been commissioned attached to each A that he received.
Most of the millionaires that Dr. Stanley interviewed for his books are self made business owners. The book’s theme generally speaks about opportunity and influence. Whether people got A’s B’s C’s or failed out of school, all millionaires have had a mentor or a life experience that gave them the “millionaire mind.” There is the real estate mogul who was stationed down south while in the army. While everyone complained about their location, he invested the little he had in the real estate market in the area and made a killing. Then there was the refuse and recycle guy who thought that the garbage business was a no brainer. Take other people’s trash and turn it into cash. And the carpet cushion guy who never finished college but was a fantastic home furnishings salesperson. He had a great job until he was fired. Then all of his bad grades and failing in school came back to haunt him and he thought no one would ever hire him since he was uneducated and got paid too much. Becoming his own boss was the only way to succeed. And finally there is the used truck parts millionaire who set up a niche so defined that he profited from 500 to 7 times the amount. One used truck dealer sold a truck for $500 to another dealer who then sold the engine alone for $500. He then realized the other parts of the truck would be worth a lot more than $500 as well. Sometimes turning a profit 7 times the amount of what he would pay for it. Money is a big motivating factor in all of these millionaires’ lives.
Another theme of the book is “vocation vocation vocation” as the old saying, “location location location” still rings true, it is the combination of location plus vocation that creates the millions. Finding your niche does not come easily; most people go to college and get an education but have no idea what they are going to do with their professional lives. These millionaires went through the same process and they were able to profit greatly.
We learn the same exact thing with internet marketing. The more you focus on your specialty and on your vocation, the more of an authority you become, and the more popular that you become makes you the winner in the search engines. Search engine optimization is all about your authority plus your popularity. But you need to also keep your eye on your leads and sales. Therefore in addition to just SEO, you need to do everything else (for example the 21 SalemGlobal things that everyone needs to do succeed online – http://websitestrategymarketing.com/its-2010-wake-up-and-smell-the-internet-21-things-you-should-be-doing-online).
Which leads me to share with you how ridiculous I think this whole global world cup soccer match thing is. Did anyone see the US vs. England game? If you didn’t let me tell you that it ended in a tie, 1-1. The cover of the New York Post actually had the headline “USA Wins 1-1”. Funny thing is I was talking to a security guard, a red blooded American through and through, who commented to me, “what kind of a crazy sport gives you a tie? No American football game can give you a tie. In baseball we have extra innings, in tennis we have tiebreakers, in American football there is overtime and in hockey there are shootouts and that’s why soccer (futbol) is not the number 1 sport in the USA” Or even the number 2, 3 or 4 sport in the US.
If you want to know more about website marketing, how you can become a millionaire on the internet or just discuss American vs. universal sports give me a call at 212-993-5828, email raphis@salemglobal.com or check out www.SalemGlobal.com for more information.