Useful business connections crop up in many different ways. When you’re talking to people; when you’re emailing people; when you’re visiting other websites and at carnivals. Really - you will see why in a moment.
And when I find connections I think might be interesting I like to share. Before starting this blog I only shared with friends and colleagues who I frequently emailed. But now I can share with you. . .
And this post is not only sharing the links it is also saying Thanks (again!) because all of these links go to blog carnivals who have shown their support by posting a link to entries on this blog.
What is a blog carnival?
Without getting too technical, a blog carnival is a collection of interesting blog posts on a subject or area of interest. If, for example, you have a specific interest (business or hobby) you can search for a carnival on that topic. When you visit the website hosting the carnival you find links to interesting articles and blog posts the host has gathered together for you. It saves you trawling hundreds of different websites looking for good content to read.
The person acting as host invites people to submit their blog posts for the carnival. The host checks the content of the post to see if it is relevant to the carnival subject and would give valuable insights to the carnival visitors.
It is a useful source of information, thoughts and comments that is easily accessible to anyone.
In fact by following the posts from some of these articles I have discovered useful material; some of which I have already discussed in previous posts on this site.
Finding blog carnivals
You can often find blog carnivals by following the link in a comment below a post on your favourite blog site. (There are quite a few at the bottom of my earlier posts).
You can search on Google (or the other search engines) for blog carnivals. Simply type blog carnival followed by the subject you are interested in.
You can check out the blog carnivals listed below. These are all carnivals that have selected and shown posts from here. If the topics I write about here are useful to you it may be that some of the other contributors to these carnivals also have good material you’d like to read.
Let me know if you find anything interesting to share with your fellow visitors to this blog.
Thanking the Blog Carnival Hosts
Hosting a blog carnival is time-consuming. I’d like to express my appreciation to the hosts of these carnivals for their support.
If you host a carnival that has displayed one or more of my posts and it isn’t shown here – please accept my apologies for missing you off this list but rest assured your link is showing below the post you included in your carnival.
~ Carol Bentley
technorati tags: blog carnival business resources copywriting
Well the result is in. Ed, who acted as my independent judge, has now chosen the question he felt was the one that best matched his judging criteria, although all the questions submitted gave us food for thought.
Was it your question? Or was it one that makes you think “That’s a good question – I’d like to know the answer to that as well!”
Ed’s judging criteria was:
- Does the question appeal to a wide business audience?
- Is it a question many people are probably asking? If not, is it something they should be asking?
- Is it a question he might have asked?
Here’s the entry that Ed chose:
Many small businesses are started by someone technically good at what they do, but not that hot on running a business. When are they better off writing “DIY” copy, and when should they outsource with an expert? As a rider to that, how should they (in your opinion) select a copy writer to work with?
This was Ed’s comment:
“Great question – and a tick in all the boxes of my judging criteria. THIS IS MY FAVOURITE because so many businesses need to know when to DIY or outsource, (How WHO and where) outsourcing, when to pay a little or a lot, split testing different copywriters’ material versus your own etc etc. GREAT question.”
It was sent in by John Holder from Ruskin Information Services. Congratulations John, here’s what you’ve won…
The unabridged audio programme of my book on 3 high-quality CDs, plus a bonus Data CD containing additional document examples, checklists, a searchable PDF version of the book and more.
You also get an A5 workbook, with the PDF on the bonus CD so you can print out another workbook to help you with each of your writing projects.
I’m sure it will prove to be a valuable tool in your business.
Your prize will soon be rushed out to you for you to enjoy.
I’ll be posting my reply to this thought-provoking question later this week. Look out for the email announcing the post titled When is DIY writing best
Thank you for sending your questions in, even if you didn’t win the prize I trust you found my advice helpful.
~ Carol Bentley
technorati tags: copywriters outsourcing sales letters
In a previous post ( 4 easy steps to authorship) I explained how a tips booklet can be used as a highly effective marketing tool. A comment on that post asked about PDF (e-books) and how they fared. It is a valid question, especially with so many businesses expanding their web presence.
Creating and gifting a PDF tips booklet, report, ‘how to’ manual or book containing any valuable information is a proven method of attracting subscribers and enquiries via a web site. I have done that myself with free e-business reports and e-articles in the past.
I also know, as I’m sure you do too, many people who have successfully promoted their business purely through e-books.
The only caveat to a PDF is that it is relatively easy to create and is very inexpensive to produce and put out into the market place. Nothing wrong with that… except that in some circumstances the quality of content and presentation may not be as good as in a published document.
And for some reason people’s perception of someone who has actually written and published a book – is an author – is quite different to any other sort of writer (at least that seems to be the case here in the UK).
So although the PDF allows you to get good and useful information out to your prospects, I personally don’t think it gives you quite the same kudos as being a published author.
What I do recommend is that when you print-publish a booklet or book, consider creating a PDF version too and think about how it can be used creatively to improve your market strength.
And of course, once you have got a book (or books) published you can certainly just use PDF e-books to distribute further material or new books, as Steven King has done.
Now – this is my personal view of the reasons for publishing a book. What do you think? Do you have a very different experience you would like to share?
~ Carol Bentley
technorati tags: copywriting business tips marketing
Within a business there are frequent occasions when a word of thanks is appropriate – and I’ll be giving you my thanks a little later in this post. But first, I want to tell you about an inspired way of saying ‘thank you’ that makes your company more memorable, whether the thanks are to customers, business colleagues or a member of staff.
Many business owners are astute enough to realise that expressing thanks for business; for referrals and recommendations; for a job well done by a supplier; for an excellent result achieved by an employee is good business practice. It is also a canny marketing activity; showing you appreciate your clients and the support they give by buying from you.
How you express your thanks gives a different perception of your company; it’s where attention to detail counts. So what are the ways you can show your appreciation – and how can you do it successfully without it becoming a burden on your budget or time?
- Send an ordinary email of thanks – this doesn’t take much time and is certainly better than not doing anything; but I don’t think it will really make you stand out
- Organise an impressive e-card (take a look at http://www.jacquielawson.com). These are beautiful animated e-cards, but if the person you are thanking has a spam filtering system in place the notification email may not reach him (or her) or he may not collect the card – it does need some effort on his part.
- Give a small gift of thanks – depending upon what you are expressing appreciation of, that may be appropriate.
- Write a personal letter of thanks. This does take more effort and for some people it can take considerable time, thinking of how to word the letter. Not everyone is comfortable about putting their thoughts into writing.
- Snail-mail a postcard. Although this is a little different, it’s not very private and may not be appropriate in certain circumstances.
- Post a ‘Thank You’ greeting card – this is the inspired method I want to tell you more about. You see, at first glance it may seem as though it takes as much effort, if not more, than some of the suggestions above. But I found a brilliant website that sends a high quality card, complete with your personal message. The cards are sent from the US but, with the current exchange rates, the postage equates to little more than it would cost to send from the UK.
There is an incredible choice of card designs and the whole process takes just a couple of minutes. Take a look at http://www.sendoutcards.com where, for those extra special occasions, they can even add a gift (but before you do that, have a look at my ‘Thank You’ message below). I tested this service myself and can definitely confirm the high quality of the card that is supplied.
Marketing Thought: if you decide to use these cards as an alternative way of delivering your marketing message then the foreign postage frank may act in your favour if you are sending to UK addresses. It may intrigue your prospect enough to open the envelope – which is the first step we are aiming to achieve. It is something that might be worth testing.
My Thanks to You
I have two Thank You’s to say:
First: I’d like to say Thank You for the questions that have been sent in. There have been some very interesting topics brought up. Some of the questions have already been posted with answers, others – that are available for ‘public view’ – will be added over the next week or so.
The questions have now been sent over to Ed for his independent selection of the best one submitted. Whoever sent in the winning question gets the prize I offered in Monday’s post.
If you sent a question in, look out for the judge’s choice in a post later this week.
Second: Even if you didn’t have a question you wanted answering, the support you show by visiting, reading and recommending my blog is really appreciated. Which is why I’m always looking out for more information or resources that will help you in your business. That’s why I suggested visiting the SendOutCards website.
And whilst looking, one of the distinct advantages of interacting on the web is you come across some very nice people. And Martin Russell is one of those (check out his Word of Mouth Magic blog, it’s listed in the blog roll).
Martin has very generously said that visitors from this blog can test out 3 cards from his SendOutCards service at his expense. This gives you the opportunity to experience the service and test the quality for yourself. Simply go to Martin’s Offer (http://www.WordofMouthMagic.com/card)
What other ways of saying ‘Thank You’ have you used or experienced? Will you use the comment (it may show as No Comments to start) link below to share ideas with other readers? Thanks.
~ Carol Bentley
On Monday I invited you to ask your most burning question and said all questions sent by today (Friday) would be considered for the accolade of being chosen as the best question asked and would receive a gift.
And so far I’ve received some very interesting ones, a few of which I’ve already answered in this week’s posts.
Now is your last chance to send your questions in. Have you sent yours yet? What is puzzling you most? It can be a question on anything to do with marketing your business; writing sales letters; advert or other material. Marketing or sales techniques or anything else you’d like to throw into the pot.
Use the comment link below or – for a more private question – you can use the question contact form (let me know if you don’t want it to be answered publicly on this blog).
I look forward to helping you.
~ Carol Bentley
It’s the online marketing dilemma. You want to encourage people to subscribe to your newsletter, blog, reports or whatever other valuable incentive you’ve created for your web visitors.
You’ve studied the best way to encourage people to sign up – as I did – and took note of the experts opinion about what works and what doesn’t.
And then, with gritted teeth, even though everyone I talk to (and that includes me… yes , I admit it I do talk to myself 
) hates those annoying pop-ups I added one to my website. You may remember it.
Did you notice it wasn’t displayed this time?
No, I haven’t capitulated to the majority opinion (sorry, I do value you and hate the thought of upsetting you) but I’ve found a way to enjoy the best of both worlds. The power of the pop-up as a marketing tool and being able to stop the irritation you may have been experiencing.
Let me explain…
Once you’ve subscribed – whether it is through the pop-up or the in-line request in the right panel – you’ll never see the pop-up box again. Isn’t that great?
So how did I do it?
Well, I’m sorry to say it wasn’t me!
Oh yeah, I implemented it… but the actual method came from a brilliant techie-geek (his words ).
If you have a website using pop-ups (because you know they work) then take a look at Hill Henderson’s solution at http://hillrobertson.com
And do it NOW! Why?
Because Hill is currently offering his easy-to-follow system for an unbelievably minuscule $10 until 4:59 am (GMT) on Friday 18th Jan.
I hope you see this post in time… if you don’t he isn’t going crazy with his new price so it’s still worth popping over to look.
Is it worth the bother? Do Pop-Ups really work?
Now, if pop-ups really do annoy you, you might think it’s easier just to ignore using them altogether…
Not a savvy marketing decision. Based purely on my experience with this website here are my conversion stats, take a look and make your own decision:
Using pop-up displayed on every visit:
Inline conversion (unique visitors to subscriptions): 6.8%
Pop-up conversion 16.1%
Then I tested showing the pop up every 5th visit you made…
Inline conversion 3.7%
Pop-up conversion 6.8%
I think the figures speak for themselves.
It will be interesting to see how the new structure works…
~ Carol Bentley
The biggest challenge when sending out a message is getting your reader to respond. That applies to email messages, advertising, direct mail letters and other marketing approaches.
That is the essence of the question Martin Russell from www.wordofmouthmagic.com sent in:
Q: “You send out blog notification emails with a bit of the post in it, so is there any evidence for which is better; title only, part of post, full post?”
A: I got my training on ‘how to create a blog’ from Ed Rivis’ programme on business blogging for profit. And, initially, I followed his email notification style of sending just the title of the post.
However, I noticed that in email notices I received from Dan Kennedy for his marketing newsletters, he always included the start of his article. Sometimes this intrigued me enough to go and have a look, sometimes it didn’t.
And I wondered if giving a bit more of an idea of what a post was about would encourage more of my blog subscribers to visit. Effectively act as a teaser…
So I decided to test this and changed the notification style of my emails (if you’ve been a subscriber for some time you probably noticed the difference). It is still early days yet but the figures are showing an interesting trend. My average number of daily visitors has increased by 31.65% since sending the new style notice.
Now this is not scientific testing because the topics are different so it is not really a fair comparison. I shall check the average again after a few more weeks.
As regards sending the full post in the email, I’m not too keen on that approach. Not because I’ve tested anything – purely a personal thing because:
- I would have to be more careful about the wording I use in the post to avoid triggering spam filter programs, which could prevent my messages getting through to you.
- It would make some of the emails extremely long and I prefer to let you decide if you want to visit to read the full content.
- If you got the full post in the email, you’d have no reason to visit this blog website. It would be more like an ezine newsletter. The idea of the website is to create a relationship, with the chance for you and I to interact. When you visit to read the post you can use the comment link to respond if you want to; effectively continuing the conversation I’m starting.
- As this blog site grows, I’ll be adding links to useful products I’m developing. If you never have any reason to visit you won’t see the links and could be missing out on something that is important to you and your business.
So, on that basis, I don’t have any plans to test sending the full post message.
What are your thoughts?
Do you prefer to have an email showing just the post title? Or do you like having the introductory text that gives a hint of what the post is about?
I’d like to know your opinion – post your 2p’s worth using the comments link below.
~ Carol Bentley
technorati tags: marketing copywriting web marketing
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