People Capital Featured in Article About Fresh Approaches to Academic Funding
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Feb 1, 2010
People Capital, the leaders in peer to peer student loans, was recently featured in an article on the Student Loan Blog (www.studentloaninfo.org). Author, Sally Croft, writes,
Discover a fresh approach to academic funding at People Capital. At People Capital, they are committed to helping credible lenders and borrowers find one another without involving a traditional financial institution. This peer-to-peer lending approach is revolutionizing student lending with a new credit risk methodology, where lenders who offer the lowest interest rate “win” borrower loans.
To check out the rest of the post click here and also check out www.People2Capital.com to learn more about the Human Capital Score and People Capital’s approach to student loans.
Internet Marketing, The JETS and Martin Luther King Jr: What We Can Learn From Current Events, Sports, Keywords, Forums and Blogs.
Posted by Salem Global on Jan 19, 2010
Let’s start off this week by paying homage to Martin Luther King Jr. A great man who was taken down by the forces of evil that exist in this world. May his memory never be forgotten. May his soul rest in peace.
The two things that come to my mind when I think about the great Reverend Dr. are Freedom and Dreaming. Freedom to live and work in this world, in the place that I want. To practice the religion of my choice. To maintain the lifestyle that I desire. And of course to dream. To raise my children in a world of peace and tranquility. Happiness and not sorrow. Pleasure with minimal pain. Should I go on? Well - just 1 more thing…
Sunday night I was with a group of friends after the JETS game and 1 guy walked in and he said he had been DREAMING of a JETS playoff and Super Bowl championship. So “dreaming” really can be whatever you want it to be. For the past 26 years (he is older than that but only been a JETS fan since 1984?, he has endured the PAIN of the JETS not winning a Super Bowl. And by the way, there are plenty of JETS fans older than him that have endured the pain of a no win since 1969 (before he was born…)
So what can we learn about Internet marketing from these two timely events? Well, for one thing, if I am a young student learning about King, all I have to do is go to Google or my search engine of choice and put in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Actually - before I type in the full name I will see “suggested searches.” These suggestions range from King’s name to “moving speech video” to “biography” “quotes” “speech” “speeches” “pictures” “timeline” “day” and “letter from Birmingham jail.” Obviously these phrases are the most searched and will give me the results I am most likely looking for. This goes back to how important it is to have proper keyword research and implementation into your meta data. If you don’t have the proper keywords, you will not be found. If you are not found, you will lose out on lead generation emanating from your website. (Incidentally, it is also helpful to have a 2nd grader come home and want to use your computer to search for Ruby Bridges so you can be reminded that she was the first black student to integrate a white school in New Orleans.)
Which leads me to why you really are reading this post. Because world peace and desegregation are nice and all, but on the cover of the NY Daily News today http://www.nydailynews.com/news/galleries/new_york_daily_news_front_pages_for_january_2010/new_york_daily_news_front_pages_for_january_2010.html as you can see, Gary Myers tells us why the JETS will win. As an Internet guy, I found it more interesting to search for “why Jets will win” and also “why Colts will win.” Even more interesting is that for each of these results you get daily newspaper article results as well as forums.newyorkjets.com and forum.colts.com which leads me tell you that forums and blogs are a great way to market your product and company. (And don’t forget to check out former NFL San Francisco 49ers tight end Dr. John Frank in honor of the upcoming football frenzy http://www.HairClinicUSA.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpajAIaULs8)
If you want to know more about freedom, dreaming, keywords, sports and forums, Give me a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or visit www.SalemGlobal.com. I guarantee it will be worthwhile to you and your company’s marketing efforts. Next week we will find out what happens when the Jets play the Colts and what searches and results come up and how content affects you in the search engines and your bottom line.
Human Capital Score Being Used By Advisors and Students Alike
Posted by Salem Global on Jan 18, 2010
After launching a beta version of their Human Capital Score, People Capital (www.People2Capital.com) has had a large number of signups come from educational institutions and advisers. The Human Capital Score is a powerful tool that can help not just students but also college or high school guidance counselors as well. The Human Capital Score is a method of predicting a student’s earnings post education in order to help students decide on student loans or certain schools from a financial standpoint.
If you are a college guidance counselor, college planning advisor or other professional in the educational field send an email to freetrial@people2capital.com for a free trial of the Human Capital Score from People Capital.
People Capital Announces Partnership with Prosper Marketplace
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Jan 11, 2010
American Banking News reports that People Capital (www.People2Capital.com), a peer-to-peer lending platform, has reached an agreement with Prosper Marketplace, another P2P lending service, to exchange referrals.
The agreement, which was announced on January 5th, 2010 calls for all loan inquires that do not meet Prosper’s requirements to be forwarded to People Capital. In return, People Capital will forward all loan requests that are not for student loans. Since People Capital only deals with student loans this is no loss for them and since Prosper Marketplace is a more established company any partnership could only help People Capital’s growth.
Click here to read the full article. Click here to visit People2Capital.com
People Capital Launches Student Loan Platform Beta
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Dec 16, 2009
People Capital unveiled a beta release of their Student Lending Platform which enable students and individual lenders to connect and exchange a peer to peer loan. People Capital is a leader in P2P Student Loans and the launch of their new platform makes them an even bigger player in the industry.
Register now and begin the process to obtain a private student loan for your education. As a special gift to their users, People Capital will be waiving the registration fee for the first 50 registrants.
Click here to register and click here to find out more information about People Capital.
It’s 2010. Wake Up and Smell The Internet: 21 Things You Should Be Doing Online
Posted by Salem Global on Dec 15, 2009
Well, if you check our blog and past history of email tips on website marketing, search engine optimization, you should know that there are 21 things that we here at SalemGlobal recommend to our readers and do for our clients, day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. But before I remind you in this week’s tip what they are, I first wanted to remind you that as a capitalist, business owner and website publisher, that marketing your website, (SEO/ search engine optimization, search engine marketing and whatever term or “keyword” or keyword phrase you come up with) actually means nothing compared to the bottom line. That is, YOUR bottom line. That is, your revenue and your profit.
The reason why you are in business or work is for one reason and one reason only. You want to make money. Even the not-for-profits that we work with want to make money. They want to make it in donations so they can help more people. Doctors want more patients because patients pay them (or insurance companies do, and/or Obama’s Democratic Party healthcare reform bill will), lawyers want more clients, retailers want to sell more product and professionals want to sell more of their services. Regardless, even though SalemGlobal.com is #1 in Google for website marketing around the country and internet marketing in NY, it doesn’t mean a thing. That is, until the phone rings. And even then we (and you) need to get a meeting, make a proposal, present the proposal, get approval, get a signature and finally, get a check. And then you have to keep servicing your clients, with a smile, and keep on invoicing them.
So remember, we are indeed on the eve of 2010. We are 10 years into the new millennium. The Internet is here to stay. If you don’t have an online strategy, whether it is to have a brochure website telling people you exist, or you go all out with a social media strategy and ecommerce play, your competition does or is working on it. And that means that you are going out of business and maybe even retiring. But the good news is that there is still hope. You can change things around. You can get a website for a measly $50 a year. Or you can spend thousands. Is it true that in order to make money, you need to spend money? I don’t think so. But I do think that in order to make money you need to be smart. And by being smart, you need to start using technology to your advantage. So as you read through my not-so-secret list of 21 things your company, office, practice or firm should be doing online, think about your bottom line. Think not only how to market yourself, but also once you do get that customer in your door or on the phone, how are you going to sell them? You don’t need a flashy million dollar website, but you do need a website. You don’t need to spend a thousand dollars a month on maintaining your website if it doesn’t pay off for you ten times that amount. But if you did invest in technology, I guarantee you will be on the right track.
One of my favorite stories from 2009 is the guy who came into my office and was boasting how he spent close to $300,000.00 on his website. It was absolutely brilliant. He paid geniuses from MIT to build it for him and he came to me looking for ideas on how to market it. I gave him the following 21 ideas. I told him my price. He told me he needs to go back to his investors with my price and he will have to get back to me. Well - maybe he will call in 2010. But I can tell him and tell you that if I was an investor and someone brought me a business plan that called for $300k in development and $0 in marketing, I would laugh. I don’t care what business you are in. If you have no marketing strategy, you don’t have a business.
Ok - a few more stories… This year was also the year I met a guy who was going to pay me $1000 a month to market his product that had the potential of making $60,000 a month. Ladies and gentlemen, I now present you with the 60% Return on Investment. Second lesson. Even Bernie Madoff didn’t make 60%. Greed will bring you down. Maybe you won’t go to jail, but be a little more realistic.
And then there was the high-end designer handbag lady. It is amazing to me how you can sell a $500 handbag in New York, London, Paris and Minuch (everybody’s talking about, Pop Musik http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFwy17_M-Ak) and not have the budget to market it online?
Last one. Years ago I met a great entrepreneur who thought he was going to hire us and sell thousands of his products online without an offline strategy to support the online strategy. This was a hard lesson but I learned that a $12 product with a $1.00 profit margin was a pretty bad product. But let’s say we were able to promote it online. Promotion does not happen over night. It happens over time. You need to build up your brand and build up your presence. (And read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point.)
As I discussed last week, you need a long term AND a short term strategy. You need an online AND an offline strategy. Of course there are exceptions to every rule but the bottom line is that you have to be smart and be dedicated. There are no shortcuts to online fame and wealth. This is a long distance race. If you want to know more, If you want to know more, please give us a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or visit www.SalemGlobal.com. In the meantime, here is my holiday gift to you:
21 Things You Should Be Doing Online:
1) Evaluate present website for compatibility with SEO strategies.
2) Research your industry and relevant keywords.
3) Purchase relevant domain names, for housing blogs and marketing websites.
4) Build marketing websites that are optimized for lead generation, areas of your industry and business.
5) Implement appropriate metadata - pagetitles, keywords, metanames, descriptions and search engine friendly URLs.
6) Rewrite and prioritize content and text on site according to research.
7) Submit site to search engines - Google, Yahoo, and the lesser used engines.
8 ) Submit listings to local directories - Google, Yahoo, Yelp, Merchant Circle etc.
9) Increase User Registration and Lead Generation - implement and promote a user registration form.
10) Build and maintain business blogs.
11) Social Media/Networks - Identify existing online communities, and build new ones.
12) Online video production - distribute your video across shared online video sites.
13) Develop new content - increase number of pages to claim being an authority.
14) Develop newsletter (We are a Constant Contact Business Partner).
15) Build and upload sitemap.
16) Write and promote online press releases for your organization (Interactive PR).
17) Write and promote articles - submission to 700+ online magazines for your organization.
18) Manage Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising (Google / Yahoo).
19) Link building - build inbound links from external websites (including industry sites, Directories, and SalemGlobal network sites).
20) Manage affiliate programs (for ecommerce companies).
21) Monitoring and Reporting - Evaluate efforts and results (e.g. Google Analytics and additional 3rd-party tools).
People Capital Poised to Launch Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform This Fall
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Aug 11, 2009
People Capital is putting the finishing touches on their innovative new peer to peer student lending platform. Their new site is on schedule to launch this fall. The platform will enable students to apply for and receive private student loans from individual investors as opposed to traditional lending institutions.
Using their patented Human Capital Score, People Capital can match students seeking funds for their education with investors looking to lend. Both parties involved win. The investors provide legally protected private student loans, which are not bankrupt-able. And the students get a loan at a reasonable rate, which might not have been possible due to their short or non-existent credit history, which is what most banks use to determine loan rates.
Check them out at www.people2capital.com and keep an eye out for the launch of their peer-to-peer lending platform this fall.
Producing a Video For Your Medical Practice or Vlogging for Doctors
Posted by Salem Global on Aug 4, 2009
Doctors not only need to have a specialty, they also need to have a good “bedside manner.” If you had to choose between the doctor that smiled all of the time vs. the doctor who never smiled, obviously you would go with the one with the friendly disposition. Doctors can be know-it-alls and they can be geniuses. They can be the smartest people in the world, the most skilled surgeons and have graduated at the top of their class. But if they don’t market themselves and let the world know how great they are, they might lose out on the great potential of their practice and lose out on helping as many people as possible.
The same holds true for the doctor in front of the camera. Doctors, just like anyone else, need to smile and show their friendly and warm regard through the lens.
Now you might say that some doctors are very skilled in their profession, but they are simply shy and a bit introverted. It’s not that they aren’t friendly, it’s just they don’t love to promote themselves. So today’s tip of the week is for that doctor who needs a bit of a push onto the camera in front of the audience.
In this economy believe it or not, people are actually scaling back on their health. I know it’s crazy, but some people are passing up on their annual checkups. Some insurance companies are charging higher premiums and people basically forget about their health. Recently I spoke with a Dentists office who said that fewer patients were calling up and scheduling appointments so they need to step up their marketing.
There are a few ways to get in front of the camera. First is the monologue. The camera focuses on the doctor and the doctor introduces him/herself to the audience. She/he then introduces his/her practice, office and staff. Then the doctor speaks about the services his/her office offers. Then there is preparation before procedures, and care after the procedures. In addition, to the monologue, there is also the “interview” as well as the “procedure.” With these three types of videos, you can certainly push out 52 videos in a year. Then next year - repeat the process. I guarantee it is all worth it!
There is a logical step to producing videos for anyone in any profession. If you need help thinking about, creating, directing and / or producing a video for your practice or profession, please email me at raphis@salemglobal.com, give me a call at 212-993-5828 or check out our site, www.SalemGlobal.com. Though SalemGlobal will work with any particular practice, we know that we can help dentists, orthodontists, lasik eye doctors, dermatologists, podiatrists and plastic surgeons. Next week we will talk about videos for the legal profession.
Article Writing for Technology Firms
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Jun 16, 2009
“Technology” has become such a multi-faceted term in our day and age, that we don’t blame you for finding our title, “Article Writing for Technology Firms”, to be something of a head-scratcher: many of you are probably thinking — What or who, exactly, should we count as “technology firms”? Are we talking about companies that deal with the Internet (e.g., SalemGlobal)? Companies that do computer and IT supprt? Software development companies? Telecom companies? Perhaps we’re thinking of companies that produce niche technological products such as a voice over IP business phone systems? In a sense, every company that owns and operates a website can lay some claim to being a “technology firm”, right? However, for the purposes of this Tip of the Week, the answer, quite simply, is Yes. “Technology” and “technology firms” encompass all of these different meanings. Luckily, our SEO Tip applies to all of these companies, with no exceptions. (We’re awesome that way….)
When SalemGlobal writes about itself, we choose to focus on one specific keyword term: “website marketing“. Though SalemGlobal offers about 20 specific SEO services that can be used as keywords (for exmaple, “interactive public relations“, or “social networking strategy“), we have chosen to zoom in on “website marketing” as a “low-hanging fruit” term, that is, a term that’s popular but not cut-throat competitive. (Cut-throat competitive terms in this case might be “SEO” or “search engine optimization”, the most general website marketing terms out there.) Now, when you’re thinking of writing an article for your technology firm, our recommendation is that you focus on the “low-hanging fruit” keyword that applies to your products, services, or expertise. To this end: one great way of transforming “high-hanging fruit” keywords into “low-hanging fruit” keywords is to “localize” them by appending them to local geographic terms. Take the aforementioned voice over IP company as an illustration. While this particular technology company is capable of providing its service anywhere in the country, the company would benefit from localizing its keywords to its geographic base of operation: so, instead of the uber-competitive “voiceover IP phones”, this company can write articles that feature “voice over IP phones NY” as prominent, hyperlinked keywords. (Remember, there are five ways of writing New York — “NY”, “NYC”, “New York, “New York City”, and “Manhattan”.) Another great way of obtaining low-hanging fruit keywords is, for lack of a better expression, getting down and dirty with the technospeak. “VoIP” is a ubiqutous and extremely competitive keyword, and our technology firm would have to work extremely hard to rank above a small number of mega tech firms that have monopolized this keyword for years. “small business VoIP phone conferencing“, however, will not prove as difficult to rank for. Thus, an article with the keyword phrase “Small business VoIP phone conferencing” in its title and body would both attract interested customers and add relevant content to the company’s website, eventually elevating its regard in the eyes of those all-desiring, and all-desirable, search engine bots.
Article Writing Within Your Industry
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Jun 1, 2009
Last week we spoke about article writing as it pertains to the season and the calendar. This week I’d like to focus on some industries that we work with as well as general businesses. First you have to recognize if you are u a “B to B” or a “B to C” company. Obviously a “B to B” is going to have a different message then a “B to C” company. “B to C” companies are dealing mainly with sales or service to one customer at a time. Whereas “B to B” companies are all about lead generation and sales of a usually higher ticket price or higher nature.
If you are in the healthcare/medical industry, your article should be focused on your expertise. SalemGlobal mainly deals with about six types of doctors: dentists, orthodontists, podiatrists, dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and eye doctors/LASIK surgeons. Obviously, your expertise is going to get more defined when you talk about the specific nature of a specific procedure and/or a specific disease, aliment, symptoms, treatment and or cure. One example is a possible article for an orthodontist to write about Invisalign, how the procedure is done, how it compares to traditional braces and what benefits someone would get out of having straighter teeth.
If you are a lawyer, you might be either “B to B”, having individual clients or “B to C”, representing companies and businesses. For example, SalemGobal works with an immigration lawyer; a great article for her would be all about the laws governing immigration, who it applies to, potential costs, as well as ramifications if one does not adhere to the law. There is a movie coming out with Sandra Bullock, where she plays a Canadian citizen whose American visa has expired and at that moment (or at least at that moment of the trailer) she announces her engagement to her assistant. Stay tuned to whether this is a good or bad movie.
Next week we will talk about some more industries and if you have a question or need help writing an article about your business, please get in touch with us, we’d be happy to guide you on your way. Just give us a call at 212-993-5828 or check out our website at http://www.SalemGlobal.com.