Internet Marketing Commandments

What are the Internet Marketing Commandments?

There are certain rules you need to abide by in Internet Marketing if you want to be successful.

If you do live by them, then you will find success. If you don’t then it will always be a struggle for you.

I have been running my Internet Marketing buisness for a few years now and I know how hard it can be.However the rules stay the same really… give people a great experience, give them the information they want, do bookmarking, backlinking etc in moderation…

There are so many changes, mostly with the big G… known as Google.

But really if you give Google what it wants and play by their rules you should not have too many issues.

Right now there is all the talk about Googles Penguin update etc and how it changed the face of Google.

Well you can go away and cry about it or you can work within it. Google is like any other business you work in or with… they have rules and you must play by them… if you do you will be rewarded if you don’t you will get Sacked or in Googles case Slapped

The video below I will share some of the things I have learned in my 4 years of being online. I know it’s an over view and if you need more help then please  contact me.

I want to help you earn online. It is very possible, in fact a few weeks ago I shared about the Best Affiliate Program, some of you took me up on the offer of sharing that with you and because of that you are earning an awesome income everyday.

I have so many ways of earning money and if you are still struggling then please contact me and let me show you some of the best and easiest ways to earn money online today. I believe in Multiple Streams Of Income, and so not just believe it but do it on a daily basis. So what I share in this video is one way, get online…

Check out the Internet Marketing Commandments Video Below

Here is the Infographic that the Video was based on. I am sure it was helpful. Please share away…

Infographics seem to lay everything out so well.

As mentioned in the video Internet Business 4 Newbies was setup to help you get up and running. It is step by step … and takes you through each step like I am looking over your shoulder helping you. I have had so many people go through that course and very excited to then have a business online and earning money, and that’s really what I want to happen for you.

My mission this year is to get at least 20 people earning an extra $50k in what’s left of the year. So buckle up and let me show you how it’s done. I cannot wait to show you, all you need is at least 2 minutes a day.

We have now dropped the price for Internet Business 4 Newbies to a rock bottom price of just $27.…

…yes you read that correctly. It’s a course I was selling for $499 and now we have it for you for $27.

So if you want to get out there and learn some great Internet Marketing Strategies then here is a way to do it, and you won’t need to Mortgage your house to do the course.

Click on Button to be taken right to the page…. I know this course will be very helpful…

Introduction To Facebook Ads

I have used Facebook adds on and off for a while now, I have had both good and bad results, I have bought every program you can think of to try to help me with learning it all I have bought an amazing graphics program that makes sure I always get the sizes correct etc, but still it can be quite a mystery in getting it exactly right. There are many variables…

Facebook is a business and so they want to make profit and alot of it, as now they have shareholders they also have to please

When I started with Facebook advertising there weren’t that many doing it, nor were there that many options on how you can and can’t advertise. One of my favourite ways was and still is to do a Sponsored Add from a post, they just seem easy to this lazy marketer.

I also love the way you can market to a direct group of people for instance, if you knew a particular company were about to lay off their workers and you had something to help or sell them (the ex- workers), then you could target your advertising right to that group.. I love that and it works very well.

Anyway this article here is long enough without me going on, I wanted you to see this article as it is very helpful, just an over view but am sure it will be helpful for you as you go through the Facebook advertising maze.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and don’t forget to share

Introduction To Facebook Ads

Are you considering Facebook Ads but are confused by all the options?

You’ve undoubtedly heard that “social ads” are the future of advertising, but what does that mean in practical terms for you today?

This article will help you make smart decisions about how to promote your brand and engage with fans through advertising on Facebook.

As a Facebook Preferred Developer, I’ve had the opportunity to gather a lot of information from the proverbial “horse’s mouth.”

This article will provide a useful lay of the land around the new ad solutions that were introduced at the Facebook Marketing Conference (fMC) in February.

Understanding Facebook’s Sales Process and Where You Fit

Before delving into the various advertising options available on Facebook and how you can utilize them, it’s helpful to understand how Facebook interfaces with advertisers.

Facebook has three sales channels: Direct, Inside and Online.

• Direct sales deals with the largest global brands, for which Facebook has dedicated account teams to manage the relationship directly with the advertiser and their agencies. These are generally referred to as managed accounts. The first important point to note is that certain products, specifically Premium (discussed later), are only available to managed accounts.
• Inside sales handles the next tier of clients, who may be spending in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on Facebook. These clients will have a sales rep whom they deal with directly to buy advertising, but they don’t have quite the same level of strategic support as managed accounts.
• That means the rest of us interact with Facebook sales via the Online, or self-serve, channel. There are companies developing products on top of Facebook’s Marketing/Ads APIs to facilitate the buying process for self-serve advertisers. Platforms such as Ad Parlor, Blinq, TBG Digital and others can be beneficial to those spending enough to justify an investment in automation and optimization.

But when it comes to the type of advertising available, these platforms don’t provide access to anything that you can’t do yourself through the Facebook self-serve interface.

What’s the Difference Between an Ad and a Sponsored Story?

According to Facebook, users want to engage with “stories,” not “ads”—the difference being that ads are one-way communication and stories are more conversational and participatory.

With this sponsored story, you have the ability to Like the brand, comment or share.

To support this, they have presented data based on research done by Nielsen that showed significantly higher click-through and brand recall rates for ads that contained the social context of a friend’s name (i.e., “John Liked this”) versus a traditional advertising message alone.

Facebook will continue to offer options for both Ads and Sponsored Stories through the Online and Direct or Inside Sales channels. However, they have introduced a number of new formats to encourage advertisers to use these more social ads. In addition, Facebook recently began testing a button that bypasses the somewhat complicated self serve ad interface to allow Page admins to promote content directly from their Page as a Sponsored Story.

That said, you can still choose to set up a traditional ad, called a Marketplace Ad, where you supply the ad copy and creative, and can link the ad to your Facebook page or your own website if you choose.

Marketplace Ads

There are currently four Marketplace Ad types:

• Standard Ad (drive traffic to your site)
• Like Ad (drive to your Facebook page)
• App Ad (drive to an app)
• Event Ad (promote an event)

Each ad includes a thumbnail image, title and body copy.

Note that as of April 1, there is a new 90-character restriction on body copy length.

Facebook’s self-serve interface makes it easy to set up a new ad.

Direct advertisers also have access to video ads, which are not available through the Online channel. However, self-serve advertisers can incorporate video via Page Post Ads described below.

Sponsored Stories

Now let’s look at Sponsored Stories. These were Facebook’s initial social ads and may now be referred to as “voice of friend” stories to differentiate from the new Page Post Ads discussed below.

These stories are shown to “friends of fans” (users whose friends are fans of your page and interact with your brand). These stories always show the friend’s profile photo and name, something not displayed with Marketplace Ads, and hence the social dimension.

Sponsored Stories can be generated from any of the following actions:

• Page Like (user Likes your page and their friends will see this)
• Page Post Like (user Likes a post on your page)
• Page Post Comment (user comments on a post)
• App Used or App Shared (user interacts with your app)
• Check In (user checks into your location)
• Question Answered (user answers a question you posted on your page)
• Event RSVP (user indicates they are attending your event)

Above you can see a traditional Like Ad alongside a Page Like Sponsored Story. Both encourage a user to engage with your page, but the Sponsored Story contains the “voice of friend” that is more likely to drive engagement from friends of fans.

The most recent additions to Facebook’s advertising arsenal are the Page Post Ad and Sponsored Story.

Page Post Ads

The Page Post Ad offers the ability to display the same content in an ad unit as on your page. If users are not already connected to your brand through a friend, they will see an ad and have the ability to Like your page.

Existing fans and friends of fans will see a Sponsored Story showing their friends who are connected to your brand, providing additional social context. For managed accounts that have access to Facebook Premium, Page Post Ads will also allow existing fans to interact by Liking or commenting directly within the Sponsored Story. This greater degree of engagement is not currently available to advertisers through the Online channel.

Page Post Ad options currently include:

• Text (you make a text-only post on your page)
• Photo (you post a photo to your page)
• Video (you post a video to your page)
• Link (you share a link on your page, which can be used to drive traffic off of Facebook)
• Question (you ask a question/poll)
• Event (you create an event)

With Page Post Ads, you can drive video consumption.

What if I Want My Ad to Appear in the News Feed?

Much has been made of the new Facebook Premium, which enables advertisers to promote Page Post Ads and Sponsored Stories directly in the news feed, including on mobile. Facebook Premium is only available to managed accounts, but that doesn’t mean your ad can’t appear in a user’s news feed.

Marketplace Sponsored Stories scheduled through the Online channel will also be considered for inclusion in the news feed. Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm will take into account numerous factors to determine the suitability of a given story for inclusion.

If I’m in San Francisco and seeing something from a plumber in Wichita, that isn’t good for the advertiser or me, and isn’t necessarily a good user experience. Facebook is rightfully concerned about this and will likely be very selective about which Sponsored Stories appear in the news feed.

If your ad does appear in the news feed, you will be paying for impressions (CPM) or clicks (CPC) just as if the ad had appeared in the designated ad position on the page.

Initially Facebook will be gathering data on how different ads perform in the context of the news feed and on mobile. Armed with that data, they will be in a better position to determine how or whether to roll out the product to more advertisers. Of course there are no guarantees that you will ever be able to pay directly for exposure in the news feed.

What About Offers?

Facebook also announced a new product that enables companies to create an Offer that can be posted on their page and claimed by users with one click. Once a user claims the offer, their friends will see this in the news feed and be prompted to claim as well.

At this point Offers are only available to managed accounts and a select number of local business Pages, but it appears the product will be more widely available soon.

Here’s an offer displayed in the news feed with the ability to claim or share the offer with one click.

It’s unclear exactly how Offers will be rolled out to a wider selection of advertisers, but it is certainly an exciting tool for businesses of any size, so stay tuned!

So Now What?

I can’t provide a prescription for how to advertise on Facebook because each organization is unique and will have different objectives. However, I think it’s important for anyone not yet advertising on Facebook to think about the following, and for anyone currently advertising to take a second look at their campaigns with these points in mind:

• In general, advertising on Facebook is more effective at driving behavior on Facebook. Another new feature Facebook recently announced will help advertisers measure this effectiveness even more precisely by enabling the tracking of various actions (Liking a Page, installing an app, RSVPing to an Event) a user may take after interacting with an ad.
• Conversely, how can you utilize advertising to support your broader goals on Facebook? Page Like Ads can be a great way to build audience size and Page Post Ads can drive deeper engagement. If you’re utilizing apps on your page, you can use ads to drive traffic directly to the app.
• One of the most powerful opportunities on Facebook is to reach friends of fans. Rather than targeting anonymous users with a traditional ad, you are likely to get a much greater response from someone one degree removed who sees that their friend interacted with your brand through a Sponsored Story.

It’s important to be clear on your goals and to be able to measure your effectiveness in reaching those goals. I am a big advocate of experimentation, but not of doing it blindly.

Just because you saw your competitor advertising on Facebook doesn’t mean you should do the same. And while tallying Likes and comparing how you stack up is an easy game to play, it’s not a great measure of the effectiveness of your Facebook marketing.

Before you go out and spend a bunch of money to gain more Likes, it’s important to have a plan for how you will retain and engage those fans. Again there is no formula, but successful brands on Facebook engage with their fans through content and conversations on their pages, as well as through fun and interactive applications (i.e., games, contests).

These activities can be amplified through the use of Page Post Ads and Sponsored Stories. When utilized together, they comprise a more holistic approach toward marketing on Facebook.

What do you think? Have you had success with advertising on Facebook? Are you excited about these new opportunities? I’d love to hear about it. Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

About the Author, Ben Pickering

Ben Pickering is the CEO of Strutta. The company offers tools for businesses to build and manage promotions and is a Facebook Preferred Developer. Twitter @bpicks. Other posts by Ben Pickering »

Great article, hope it helped…. share it round to your Twitter, Facebook, Google +… thankyou, that was an Introduction To Facebook Ads

The Google Penguin Update

Well Google has been at it again The Google Penguin Update just happened in last week or so..the thing is, we can never hope to keep up with Google and their changes.. everyday it’s something else, something new, and then some people panic and write their take on what’s going on out there in the world of Googleland, it could be right or wrong…this writeup below is excellant.

I cannot hope to keep up with Google and neither do I pretend to, however I do keep an eye on some of the main blogs out there and what they are saying and keep up with the changes abit that way. This would be the best article I have seen about The Google Penguin Update. It really is good and Matt always gives a balanced update on what’s going on.

So I have Curated Matts blog post here for you all to read . I know it’s quite long but this can’t really be summed up in a few words. So if you want to know what’s happened with the latest Google update then check this out.

Leave comments below if it’s been helpful to you. Also has any of the latest updates made any difference to any of your websites… Comment below would love to hear about it.

Google Penguin Update

Recently Google released yet another change which is being referred to as the “Google Penguin” update. Sounds very cute, much like the friendly Google Panda…yeah right!!

In this post I want to discuss this latest update, and once again address some common concerns, as I seem to be getting a lot of worried people contacting me after their sites got hit hard by Google over the past few months.

So What is Google Penguin?

Penguin was an update to the Google algorithm that was released on the 24th of April, with intention of apparently penalizing sites for over-optimization, otherwise known as spamming. The first thing I want to say is that its early days, and no one knows exactly what this update was precisely targeting, but nonetheless I will do my best to share some insight, as I can happily say that I actually experienced a positive increase or no change across the board on all my websites after this update, and also after the latest Panda update which happened the week prior.

First off, we can start to get an understanding of this update by reading what Google officially states about it. If you read the Google Webmaster blog it says this:

“The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content. While we can’t divulge specific signals because we don’t want to give people a way to game our search results and worsen the experience for users, our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive webspam tactics.”

OK so as you would expect Google doesn’t spell it out for everyone, but rather provides a very vague overview and focusses on their overall intention with the update. The key things that we can take from this statement I believe are “high quality sites” and “good user experience“, nothing we didn’t all know already, but who’s actually doing it is more to the point.

One can safely assume that this update, after reading the full Google blog post, was looking at keyword stuffing in content, as Google gives  a really over the top example of what this looks like. The example is a poor one, as that sort of keyword stuffing has been slapped by Google for years, so I guess it’s some level of more critical analysis of over use of keywords in your On Page SEO that this update was targeting. With that said, you might want to pay attention to how your content uses keywords and make it look natural. Golden rule for all SEO, make it look natural if it isn’t totally natural!!

The Good Old User Experience

I’ve been harping on about the user experience on this blog a fair bit over the past few months, and you guessed it, I’m going to continue to do so, as I keep seeing sites that get slapped by Google, where the webmasters are shocked and have no idea why. In most cases when I look at these sites, I can see glaringly obvious reasons, as the sites are clearly not designed for the user at all.

I want to also add this quote from Matt Cutts (head of Google Anti-Spam team):

“We want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites. As always, we’ll keep our ears open for feedback on ways to iterate and improve our ranking algorithms toward that goal.”

…”even no optimization at all…” yeah right, and pigs may just fly one day too!

Also its important to note that Google Panda 3.5 was also rolled at a week prior to the Penguin update, around the 17th of April, so if you lost a significant amount of traffic around that date, then you were most likely ‘Pandalized’ rather than ‘Penguinalized!!!!’

Oh and let’s not forget the 750,000 unnatural backlink warning messages that Google sent out prior to these changes, warning webmasters to remove links that were acquired through unnatural means…what an interesting few months its been!

Google is on the Aggressive

Ok so it doesn’t take a genius to notice that Google is on the aggressive right now, trying their hardest to remove spam from the results and level the playing the field for SEO. I ‘ve never experienced this many changes so closely related than what we are seeing now.

One thing that I must say I find pretty frustrating is that Google tells us not to do much if any SEO, other than make your sites easier to crawl etc…and when it comes to offpage SEO they expect it to happen naturally. The problem for the small guys and gals doing web marketing is that it’s virtually impossible to get enough exposure in the first place so that other webmasters even know about our sites to even consider linking to you. Sure large brands don’t have to worry as they already have a following.

So I don’t think the playing field is that level when Google does the changes they make, but regardless we have to play by their rules as closely as we can, or pay the price of getting no traffic from Google.

So with that said, in light of all the carnage going on out there right now, here’s some suggestions that might help:

Build Sites that Don’t Look Optimized

If Google wants people to just blog away and build affiliate marketing sites or stores etc…without doing any significant SEO, then we really need to mimic this as closely as possible. If you take a look at a few dozen sites ranking in Google now for various keywords, ask yourself if you think they are doing careful On Page SEO or not.

It’s really not that hard to spot, just look at some of the titles of pages on sites and ask yourself if these look like they were written with the keyword in mind or the topic in mind. Of course you will see some junk that is ranking and ask yourself how this got there, but just overlook that as Google will remove the junk eventually, so don’t get caught up on that just focus on good quality yourself.

Also have a look at all the content on the sites and ask yourself if the topics were written with keywords in mind or with topics in mind. Of course if you want to get traffic to your sites, you really have to do keyword research, and then target these keywords, however do it as natural looking as you can, so you still target keywords but fly under the radar!

Create Sites that Will Naturally Get Good Signals

If you focus on building great quality sites, that your traffic will love, then they will naturally want to bookmark your site and share it on Facebook and Google Plus. Not only that though, they will most likely come back again and also search for your site in Google using the site name. Ideally you want your site to get a lot of searches for its name, as it’s a clear signal to Google that people like it. Other good signals are the time on your site, low bounce rate, high average page view etc…

The only way you stand any chance of getting these “good signals” happening on your site is if you actually have a good site, not rocket science really. The problem is that good sites take effort and time and a lot of people can’t be bothered, and instead continue to put up low quality thin sites, and try all sorts of things to dodge the Google bullets, but honestly it’s all a waste of time in the long run, trust me I’m speaking from experience.

Google are only going to roll out more and more updates like Penguin and Panda, who knows maybe the next one will be called “Google Poodle”, ha ha, then you can say your site was “Poodlized!!! In all seriousness though, the sooner you move towards managing less sites, and focussing on higher quality, and thinking about the user experience, that better you will do in Google.

Off Page SEO Can’t Hurt Your Sites…Or Can It?

Ok so here comes the bombshell, Google sent out all these unnatural link warning to webmasters over the past few months, and sites who got them experiences a drop in rankings. The result is that many webmasters frantically started to remove any links they thought Google might frown upon and then submit for a reconsideration. I assume many SEO companies got dropped by webmasters, only to be replaced by news ones who get on their high horse and claim they are pure whitehat SEO and all will go well if the webmaster is to choose them…I doubt it…no one is 100% whitehat.

So why is this a bombshell then? Well the obvious question is, “if low quality backlinks to your sites can harm them, can’t we all go out and build a bunch of low quality links to our competitors?”

My response to this used to be “No way, if Google allowed this it could well create total chaos online”

My response now is “I’m not sure anymore, and I am starting to think low quality links combined with a lack of good signals coming off your site may well cause problems for you!”

I don’t think these recent changes in regards to backlinks will cause widespread chaos by any means, the reason being that chaos, I assume, would mean the likes of Amazon could be taken down, or other well established authority brands. I don’t think will ever happen, as these kinds of sites have way too many good signals for Google to ditch them, and the same goes for much smaller, yet quality sites too.

So what about sites that are ranking well but don’t have many “good signals”, are these open for attack from this negative SEO? I can’t definitely say, but my assumption is that possibly yes, if the negative campaign against them is particularly nasty in nature and well planned out. I sincerely discourage anyone from getting involved in these tactics, as it’s not the way to win a battle, and we would all not like it if someone did it to us.

Avoid Obvious Forced Linking

I encourage people, if you are using forced link building, and I think most of us will have to, make sure you don’t use overly spammy links, such as mass auto-blog comments, profile links, very public blog networks etc…anything that is really obvious and easy for Google to spot as forced linking. Also do your best to create content and tools, anything that will increase the chances of people linking to you naturally.

Also if you create a decent following in your niche this will happen much more easily. I think the key is to use linking as much as you need to, to gain momentum, but don’t rely on forced linking only, otherwise your site will not look natural.

Conclusion

To close this post I want to leave this final thought, spend time analyzing high quality sites in various niches, and take notes on how they make the user experience a good one, and do your best to employ as many of these techniques on your own sites.

If you enjoyed this post, I would be super grateful if you would share on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus below.

Thanks!

Article By Matt Carter

Hi, my name is Matt Carter and this is my blog. I write about various topics to do with Internet Marketing and strive to provide the best free resource for people wanting to develop online businesses. More about me..

Great article about the Google Penguin Update and I hope you found it as helpful as I did , don’t forget to comment below or share it out there.

56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest

I love this article and am thank you for Beth for writing it.

I have curated it out off her site, so for all of you wondering how you can use Pinterest in your business there are more than enough tips here to help you in fact 56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest.

You will know I am sure that I have already written a post on Pinterest and also a video which I will re post in here as well all about Pinterest.

The other post is called How To Use Pinterest and all you need to do is click on the link and you can go on over and read watch and take part.

Also I have for you a FREE download on How to use Pinterest in Your Business, I am sure you will find it very helpful.

While Pinterest is still finding itself and there are not too many restrictions it’s a great idea to get in there and make it apart of your business strategy.

Read below it does not matter if your new to Pinterest or been in it a while and still learning or your a Pinterest Black belt there will be some great Pinterest Strategies here for you.

I have also added the video I have done as well so if you have not seen the video showing you how to get started then check it out below.

Pinterest Marketing for Beginner Pinners …

1. Make sure you feature your business name on your profile for maximum exposure. Use your business name as your username, or change your profile name to your business name after your profile is set up.
2. Add a paragraph about who you are and what you’re interested in to the “About” section on your Pinterest profile. It will show up right under your photo, and will be one way that users can find out more about you.
3. Connect your account with your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Not only will it help you gain followers, but making this connection adds social media icons under your profile picture that link to your Facebook and Twitter profiles.
4. Don’t forget to add your website URL in your profile, too!
5. Pin lots of stuff. Pin content steadily, instead of in huge bursts, to maximize your exposure and engagement.
6. Come up with creative and interesting board names. They get shared whenever you pin something, so make them enticing. But be creative — you need to keep your board names short. There isn’t a lot of room for long descriptive titles.
7. Tag other Pinterest users in your pins by using “@username” in your descriptions. Network with other professionals and vendors in your field by using this feature. Not many people are doing this yet, so it’s a great way to build your following and stand out.
8. Comment on other people’s pins. Just like with tagging, this feature hasn’t really caught on yet, so use it regularly to really engage with other users. Obviously, use the same good manners and common sense you would when commenting on a blog or other social media site.
9. “Like” other people’s pins to give a thumbs-up when you want to recognize great content.
10. Pin from lots of different sources, instead of just from one or two sites. Variety is important on Pinterest.
11. Mix pinning your own unique finds with doing lots of “repinning,” which is repeating someone else’s pin to your followers (just like a Retweet on Twitter). The person whose image you repin gets notified via email, and they also get a credit on your pin, which increases their following.
12. Feel free to pin your own blog posts, but don’t over-promote. Follow the usual etiquette rules of any other social media site, and don’t be the boorish one at the party who only talks about himself.
13. Pin videos! Pinterest has a special section just for pinned videos, and there are far fewer videos than images on Pinterest at this point, so use them to distinguish yourself. Any YouTube video is easy to pin.
14. When you pin an image, add a description under it. Be smart about these descriptions — a good description will stay with an image as it gets repinned all over the Pinterest world. If the image is something from your own site, definitely use your business name in the description.
15. After you pin a new image using the very handy Pinterest browser bookmarklet (a great tool in its own right,) use its built-in social media prompts to re-share your pin on Twitter and Facebook, too.
16. Use Pinterest’s embed option to publish pins as content in your blog posts and website pages. Note: As Pinterest is catching on, you may need to tell your users that they need to click on a Pinterest image to get to the original source. When I tried this last week, a reader wrote to me and asked, “Is there more to that Pin thing? Or is it just a pretty image?”
17. Get the Pinterest iPhone app, so you can repin on the go, pin from your camera and add a location to your pins so others can find your images.
18. Optimize your website content for Pinterest sharing (Part One): Use images in every single post you write, so your post can be shared on Pinterest. When you find yourself getting lazy about this, remember –- not using an image in your post means no one will pin it. And remember — the prettier the picture is, the more it will get pinned. The images that appeal to Pinterest members are powerful and emotive, so keep that in mind when choosing your pictures. That combination tends to work well for your blog readers, too.
19. Optimize your website content for Pinterest sharing (Part Two): Consider watermarking your images, or adding text to them. If you’re using your own images on Pinterest, one of the best ways to help your image stand out is by adding a clear description to the image itself, or adding a watermark with your business name. Make sure it’s clear, but that it doesn’t block out the main subject of the photo.
20. Create seasonal or holiday boards that relate to your brand. Example: New Year’s Resolutions, Fourth of July, etc. Users love these.
21. Add a prominent Follow Me on Pinterest button to your website to advertise that you’re a pinner!

Pinterest marketing for Intermediate Pinners …

22. Search for new images to pin (or for trends) by using Pinterest’s search function. The search bar is in the top left of every Pinterest page.
23. Use keywords in descriptions of pins, so pinners can find your images and boards when they do their own searches.
24. Make sure you’ve got a Pin It! button added to the footer of each of your blog posts so your readers can quickly and easily share your content on Pinterest.
25. Your Pinterest page has its own RSS feed! Find your Pinterest feed by clicking on the RSS symbol under your profile photo, then use it anywhere you can use a feed (Facebook, LinkedIn, for syndication on other sites, etc.) Advertise your Pinterest feed to your readers and ask them to add you to their RSS feedreaders.
26. Got a WordPress site? Feature your recent pins in a widget in your WordPress sidebar by using a Pinterest widget.
27. You can add contributors to any of your boards. Use this feature to engage your staff and let them contribute to your Pinterest presence by using adding to your company boards. Your staff will love this, and your boards will be richer for it!
28. Want to find out who’s been pinning your stuff? Go to: http://pinterest.com/source/yoursitehere. For an example, check out Copyblogger’s source page. Look at your site’s page often to discover which posts and images are resonating with Pinterest users. Use that information to shape your content strategy.
29. Add prices to your pins to create your own Pinterest shop. To add a price to a pin, type the $ or £ symbol followed by item’s price in the pin’s description. When you add prices to your pins, they may be featured in Pinterest’s “Gifts” section.
30. Create a board that tells the story of your company and communicates your core values. Make this board available to people as part of your sales process.
31. Consider creating “thank you” boards for current or past clients that send special appreciative messages. Could you create a holiday thank you card? Or one that celebrate the launch of a new client’s big project with your company?
32. Pin tutorials on your boards. Need to walk a client through how to use your products or services? Or do you want to create free how-to videos to use as promotional materials? Pin your videos and presentations on special “How-To” or “Tutorial” boards. Anything you teach your clients can be made into a tutorial.
33. Watch for trends. Click on the “Popular” link on your Pinterest home page to research what’s catching on with pinners, then integrate those trends into your content strategy.
34. Be yourself. Pinterest is all about personal expression, so don’t be afraid to pin stuff that represents who you really are.
35. Create a special board to highlight your company’s team members. Use the description under each photo to write a bio of each person.
36. Show behind-the-scenes photos of your company. People love knowing how you make things!
37. Become an information curator for your niche. Gather the newest and best resources on your boards. Become a trusted source of information on Pinterest, and your following will grow by leaps and bounds.
38. Integrate your Pinterest account with Facebook’s timeline feature, so you post content in both places at once.
39. Highlight old content on your blog so that people can repin your archived posts. The LinkWithin tool will add a footer to your blog posts that features images and links pulled from old content, giving people the opportunity to pin previous articles.
40. Thinking about freshening up old photos, or going back through your blog archives and adding photos to those text-only posts? Now is the time! Remember — the prettier the picture, the more pins you will get.

Pinterest marketing for Black-belt Pinners …

41. Find out when you’re getting the most repins, likes, comments and referral traffic by regularly analyzing both your Pinterest profile and your site traffic stats. Test out pinning on different days of the week and times of day to maximize traffic and audience engagement.
42. Connect your clients who use Pinterest by introducing them to each other. Recognize your best pinners by sending out a weekly “Best of Pinterest” email that includes spotlighted boards and pins from your clients’ profiles.
43. Create moderated boards for your fans to express their support for you. They can add videos, blog posts and photos from your events.
44. Do you have a number of different ideal client personas? Create a separate board to represent each client persona, then use those boards during your sales cycle and embed them into your website pages so people are clear about the kinds of clients you’re trying to attract.
45. Create boards for the classes and webinars you teach, and use them as supplemental material for your students. You can use the boards during your class or presentation, or send your students home with Pinterest boards to explore after class. If you’re teaching a live class or workshop, include pictures from the actual event.
46. Create boards for referral sources, affiliates and strategic partners, and let them add to the boards. Engage with the partners so they know they are included and appreciated.
47. Allow your best customers or star students to join in on certain boards and pin ideas and suggestions about how to use your product, or themes that go along with your products and services.
48. What could be better for showcasing how awesome your business is than creating a dedicated testimonials board?
49. Use Pinterest boards to tell client stories. Turn boring written case studies into powerful visual stories.
50. Check out your VIP clients’ boards to get ideas for special thank you or holiday gifts.
51. Create quick-start guides or owner’s manual boards for your products. Or if you’re primarily a service provider, create a “How to Get the Most Out of Working with Me” board with ideas and suggestions on maximizing your service relationship.
52. Create boards for conferences that you attend. Carry cards with instructions on getting invited to post on that board — conference attendees will love this!
53. Create beautiful, visually interesting coupons, and add them to your boards.
54. Your clients will be blown away if you create special boards just for them that include resources and ideas tailored to their individual situations. This will really make your company shine is done regularly and well.
55. Offer exclusive Pinterest promotions. Create pins that give special promotions for following you on Pinterest.
56. Run a Pinterest contest. Invite your readers to pin links and images from your site that inspire, motivate, move or entertain them. Then judge the winners by creativity or ingenuity and offer a juicy prize. Offer to promote the winners’ Pinterest boards on your site as part of the contest.

Pinterest is a beautiful (and effective) content marketing tool

Pinterest is not only picking up steam in social media circles, it has become a proven source of traffic for blogs and websites, quickly surpassing current favorites like LinkedIn and YouTube.

While lots of folks are flapping their jaws about the impressive statistics of Pinterest, some companies are quietly using this fabulous new tool to pin their way to better customer engagement and a visually interesting, personally appealing brand.

My advice? Take a long, hard look at including Pinterest as part of your 2012 content marketing plan.

And start making your social media strategy more beautiful, one little pin at a time.

How have you been using Pinterest as a marketing tool? Let us know in the comments …

About the Author: Beth Hayden is a blogging coach and Pinterest marketing convert. You can follow her pins at @bethhayden. To learn how to market effectively with Pinterest, download her free report, “5 Stupid Mistakes to Avoid if You Want to Make Money with Pinterest.”

 

How to Use Pinterest Video

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