Press releases are one of those topics that every marketer has an opinion about. A few years ago, press releases were SEO gold, the easiest way to earn hundreds of backlinks in an instant. But in 2013, the Google algorithm caught up to the game. The debate ever since has been whether press releases still help with SEO. So do press releases work? I asked PR companies, SEO managers, and business owners to weigh in.

Press releases and backlinks

After the 2013 Google update, press releases distributed by companies like PRWeb and 24-7 Newswire changed from dofollow links to nofollow links. What does that mean?

Google’s whole search engine is algorithmic, reading signals to figure out what a website is about and which concepts are related to other concepts. One of the signals Google uses is the linkage between different websites. These links create the worldwide “web.”

When a site that Google already ranks as important links out to a company’s website, that company becomes a little more important in Google’s eyes. The value that the first site has passed to the second is what’s known as link juice.

“Juicy” links are known as dofollow links. Nofollow links, on the other hand, are still clickable links, but they don’t pass on any link juice.

Therefore, when a press release that links to your website is distributed to other websites, the links are nofollow links, giving you less SEO value.

But does that mean there’s no value at all?

Citations vs. links

Luke Bastin, Owner Principal of SEO company PDABuzz, says that local businesses can still benefit from press releases because of how they affect Google Maps results. These map listings “typically appear above organic listings, and they attract lots of traffic,” he says.

Here’s an example of what he’s describing. I searched for “Peruvian restaurant Los Angeles,” and the Google Maps results were placed above the first organic result.

Luke explains, “One of the major factors behind maps listings is how many high-quality business citations a website has.”

A citation is an external website mention of a business’s name, address, and phone number (abbreviated NAP). Unlike links, citations do not need to be linked to your website to be credited by Google’s algorithm.

“Typically, business owners and marketers think of sites like Yelp, Merchant Circle, Foursquare, Superpages and so on as the main places to obtain local business citations. However, an overlooked opportunity is a good SEO press release which not only makes an announcement about the business but also includes the name, address, and phone number within the press release.”

Because of the value of citations, Luke believes distributing press releases “still works wonderfully well for local SEO and should continue to do so for some time.”

An invitation for Google to crawl

Brian Lim, founder and CEO of print clothing company Into the AM, says, “We continue to use press releases as a viable means to gain exposure and SEO value. While press releases don’t hold the same value they did years ago, there are still many advantages.”

One advantage he cites is that issuing press releases prompts Google to crawl your site more frequently. “From there,” Brian says, “Google can decide whether or not to index the content. If you’re adding some commentary or original content on top of the press release, it’s far more likely that Google will index it, because it goes beyond syndication and can provide extra value to the visitor.”

Press releases as the official company word

James Nuttall, Content and Outreach Specialist for Africa Travel, says, “For me, press releases are still a vital part of any outreach campaign.” He believes that “having a press release adds an ‘official’ stamp to your campaign: This is the story.”

Samuella Becker, a marketing strategist at TigressPR, agrees. “I still use press releases to present the factual details around a company or new product launch,” she says, “with the hopes that the journalist/blogger/TV producer who I’m sending it to will do their OWN story. I don’t expect the media outlet to pick up the press release verbatim.”

I’ve seen this principle in action as editor of the Menuism Blog, where we cover restaurant trends. It’s not always easy to get an interview with the CEO of McDonald’s or the hot Michelin-starred chef. But when your article references a new menu item or restaurant opening, you can refer to a company’s press release and include a vetted quote from the decision-makers. (I’ve used restaurant promotional photos for our articles, too, so it’s not a bad idea to syndicate those). In these cases, our site wasn’t writing specifically about the story pitch of the press release, but instead adapting press release content to suit a story we were already developing.

Could you get on Google News?

Zachary Weiner, CEO of PR firm Emerging Insider Communications believes that even though a press release’s benefits have changed, the press release is not dead.

“There is still an SEO benefit to press releases, but not for the reasons it once was,” he says. Now, “press releases can still use their title to attract certain phrase searches. While the link building aspects are no longer relevant, ‘gaming’ the title of a press release can still have numerous keyword benefits. This is especially true for Google News searches, where most companies blogs will not be sourced, but press releases will be.”

If you’re hoping to get picked up by Google News, your press release must be well-crafted. Cary Haun, an SEO specialist at Page 1 Solutions, says, “make sure the news you’re sharing is current, noteworthy, and important to your community or industry.”

He advises companies to “think about the content on the page with the backlink, rather than just the domain authority of the press release vendor and its outlets.” Use this press release template to get you going.

While Cary acknowledges that “the likelihood of a press release on a wire getting ‘picked up’ by a publication is pretty minimal,” there is still SEO value in “associating your URL and brand with quality information, rather than grasping at straws and creating low-value spam.”

Jason Simms, a PR consultant, believes that “using a press release distribution service has zero long-term SEO value.” However, he admits, when the story is timely, “having the press release posted more places may help more journalists see it in the short term. The effect is extremely short-lived, and there is no noticeable bump in traffic.”

Okay, so maybe don’t set your heart on Google News.

Press releases are a tactic, not a strategy

When trying to build your company’s reputation by earning media coverage, just writing a press release isn’t going to do it. Even a truly newsworthy pitch won’t work with a “spray and pray” approach. You’ll need to tailor your pitch to individual outlets and editors, and it will take time to build relationships with them.

Press releases are not a magic bullet for public relations or for SEO. However, press releases do still have their benefits, including signals to Google in the form of citations, content, and website crawling.

If you’re new to press release distribution, you can try it out with 10% off at PRWeb through this link. Another option is 24-7 Press Release Newswire.

Where do you fall on the “Do press releases work” question? Share your perspective and tell us about your experience in the comments. 

If I were to ask you to name the world’s largest search engine, you’d probably know immediately that it’s Google. But were I to ask you to name the world’s second-largest search engine, what would your answer be? (Hint: It’s not Bing.)

It’s YouTube. 

That’s right. YouTube, with 1.5 billion logged-in users per month, isn’t just a repository of cat videos and viral memes. It’s a go-to resource for answers to questions, with viewers watching an aggregate of 1 billion hours of YouTube a day. In fact, a Cisco study projects that video will represent 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. 

How can your business take advantage of the huge volume of search traffic on YouTube? Create videos that engage your customers and potential buyers. To get started, consider these four ideas:

Video marketing idea #1: Help solve problems

Video is an effective platform for answering industry FAQs. Think about questions your customers commonly pose to you or that they might be too embarrassed to ask. For instance, a restaurant might upload a video on tipping etiquette. A jewelry designer might share a tutorial on how to change a watch battery. A flooring contractor might explain how to measure a room’s square footage. These how-to videos don’t need to be overt sales pitches, but instead seek to position your company as an approachable, knowledgeable and helpful resource.

Idea #2: Delineate differences

Another way to use video is to explain differences between products. Talk about situations where a certain product is especially beneficial. Help customers choose between your various product offerings by going through the pros and cons of each one in detail.

Video marketing idea #3: Create a buying guide

The kinds of products that people research on YouTube are likely to be somewhat intricate. Create a video to discuss the factors buyers should consider before purchasing, such as key features, price and customer use cases. Include smart questions that consumers should ask as they make their choice.

Idea #4: Demonstrate your products

Showing your product in action can impact whether a customer buys it or moves on to another corner of the web. Video can be an effective way to show how easy your product is to set up or install, for instance. For physical products, give a sense of scale by showing hands using the product or how it fits in a setting such as a kitchen or a garage. Your product demonstrations should highlight the main features of your product as well as any features that may not be obvious, such as keyboard shortcuts on an app or hidden pockets in a garment.

By incorporating video into your overall marketing strategy, your business can start to capture a piece of YouTube’s enormous search traffic. Think through the various stages of your customer funnel, and create video content to address viewers at each stage. Once you’ve got a few videos under your belt, start driving traffic to them to grow your network of viewers and subscribers. Keep creating videos to answer new questions from the community and to provide product updates. Optimize each video listing by including a clear call to action, writing a concise video description and creating a video thumbnail that encapsulates your content. 

Meet your customers where they are, and remember that — increasingly — where they are is on YouTube.

This column originally appeared on Forbes.

Stock photography is often contrived, confusing, or altogether nonsensical. (If you need examples, click here, here, and here). And free stock photos? Forget it.

That’s why I was excited to discover such an awesome resource for free stock photography. I don’t receive any sort of compensation for this review — I’m not sure how I could make money off a free stock photo site anyway. But when a site figures out how to combine free stock photos with zero embarrassment factor, I believe it deserves to be shared.

Pexels.com

Pexels offers easily searchable free stock photography. All photos fall under the Creative Commons Zero license, meaning that the pictures can be used for any legal purpose, including commercial. You may modify, copy, and distribute the photos. Attribution is not required.

Pexels also displays sponsored stock photography assets for purchase, including from sites like Storyblocks. I discussed Storyblocks in my recent roundup of cool video tools. Perhaps I should add Pexels Video to the list because it offers free stock video as well!

Quality controls

Every full-size, high-resolution photo on Pexels is hand-picked from photos uploaded by Pexels users or sourced from free image websites. The site hosts monthly photo submission contests that help grow the free stock photo library. For instance, at the time of publication, the current contests seek “everyday people” and “office spaces.” Previous contests include cat photos (with a prize of free cat food!), minimalist photos, and outdoor photos.

Contributing to the community

Once you’ve downloaded a free stock photo from Pexels, you’re encouraged to support the site and community in a number of ways. You can tweet a thank-you or follow the photographer’s social media channels, donate directly to the photographer’s PayPal account, link back to the photo, or click on any of the sponsored ads that appear.

How I’ve used Pexels’s free stock photos

I sourced the featured photo for this blog post from Pexels and then altered it with photo filters and type.

I also used Pexels for almost all the photography in my recently released book, 3 Expensive Google AdWords Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them).

Pexels is a wonderful resource – it’s intuitive, high-quality, and searchable. If you’re out there looking for free stock photos, be sure to try Pexels.com!

Copywriting is stylistic, so for every rule, there is usually an exception. Oftentimes, to impart a conversational quality, it’s fine to overlook certain grammatical rules — split infinitives like Star Trek‘s “to boldly go” or adverb/adjective confusion like Apple’s “Think Different” may rile linguists, but they’ve proved memorable.

I myself flout grammar rules all the time. I start sentences with conjunctions like but or and. I end sentences in prepositions. But I do adhere to a few principles: Go easy on the exclamation points. Show, don’t tell. And most importantly: never use two sentences when one will do.

I pride myself on keeping copy tight and don’t have patience for useless fluff. Useless fluff is especially prevalent in web copy, where, for SEO purposes, articles usually need to meet a minimum word count. When writers lack something to say, they look for filler words and phrases. They create sentences that take up space but do nothing to impart meaning or convey beneficial information.

The best embodiment of filler and fluff that I can think of is the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. So let’s use his speaking style as a teachable moment in copywriting.

President Donald J. Fluffington

Our chief executive is often described as a master of branding. There’s no question that decades from now, the “Make America Great Again” slogan will define his term in office. It’s a potent tagline—succinct, aspirational, and indelible. Still, for a president who claims to “know words” and “have the best words,” he has a verbal tic: he uses fluff words as a crutch to fill dead air.

In his first 100 days in office, the president’s most-Tweeted word was great. Who hasn’t seen a clip of Trump touting his “great, great wall on the southern border,” or greeting the “great men and women of our military”? Last year, National Journal analyzed transcripts of Trump’s conversations with world leaders and counted 78 adjectives, including great, tremendous, fantastic, incredible, special, wonderful, terrific, and big.

As Washington Times commentator Wesley Pruden writes,

Hyperbole is the affliction of our age, where life is lived on the surface, entertainment is all and synthetic excitement is as good as the real thing. Why end a sentence with a period, when you can use an exclamation point, or even two? Or three… But even a president — indeed, even President Donald J. Trump — does not live in a world where everything is wonderful, tremendous, fantastic and incredible.

Why fluff has no place in your copy — and how you can fix it

While some may find the president’s speaking style refreshing, more find it vapid and unappealing (check the poll numbers). Like Trump, copy that’s chock-full of hyperbole is difficult to believe and even harder to trust.

As a copywriter, your duty to your brand is to develop a voice that inspires people to respond positively. Positive reactions might mean buying a product, sharing an article, or following the brand on social media. To evoke these reactions, your copy must cultivate confidence, respect, even admiration.

How? First, trim the fat. Strike any sentences that don’t add information, like “you’ll love it,” “the possibilities are endless,” or “there’s something for everybody.” Then, use the Find/Replace function and delete any uses of very and really — you don’t need them. Next, look for any Trumpian adjectives. With each one you find, feel shame. Subcutaneous, loathing, flagellating shame. Finally, demonstrate actual knowledge and writing acumen by transforming your copy from vacuous to valuable.

The following table may help in this endeavor:

If Trump described his border wall as “inventive” or “effective” instead of “great, great,” it would still be a stupid idea. The point, however, is that it wouldn’t sound as stupid.

In truth, your copy may not be able to sell a worthless product or salvage a hackneyed ad campaign. But at least any reflection of your own writing skill will be spared. Write well, even if what you have to write about isn’t “great.”

Don’t just fill space. Say something.

HARO, or Help a Reporter Out, is an invaluable tool for content marketers. As I explained in a previous post, HARO connects journalists and bloggers to sources whose expertise they can use in their upcoming articles.

For a small business owner, HARO is a free and easy way to earn some free PR, links to your site, and to help build a reputation as a leader in your field.

The following tips will help you maximize HARO as a source.

Using HARO as a Source

HARO is a free email newsletter that arrives three times daily. Each email contains a list of queries from journalists and bloggers looking for help with their stories.

When you see a query that you’d like to answer, simply email the writer back using the anonymized email address supplied. Pay close attention to the query’s details and requirements, and do your best to follow them to the letter.

My top tips for submitting successful HARO pitches

Managing this worthwhile commitment

An email that arrives three times a day can sound daunting – especially if, like me, you subscribe to more than one HARO list (I subscribe to two, and therefore get six HARO emails a day).

However, it’s well worth it to spend a few minutes each day perusing the emails. Here’s how I manage this ongoing commitment:

Gmail filters

HARO is one of the few newsletters I allow to be sent to my main work email inbox and not my dedicated spam address. But that doesn’t mean I let is run roughshod all over my inbox.

Instead, because I use G Suite for Charles Ave (basically Gmail for businesses), I can set up a filter so that my daily workflow isn’t interrupted.

My filter is set up so that every HARO newsletter is already marked as “Read” and goes into my “Updates” folder, rather than my main inbox. Because it’s marked as read, I don’t get a notification that a new email has arrived (nor do I have to click on it to mark it as read), so I eliminate what would be a six-times-daily hassle.

I keep HARO newsletters in my second inbox tab, a separate inbox that I only look at when I have time. This helps me prioritize client work over promoting Charles Ave Marketing, which, though important, comes second.

Sometimes several days will pass without my having looked through HARO. That’s fine. Usually, the deadlines to submit pitches are only a day or two from the time the query is made, so if a HARO email is a few days old, I just delete it and move on to fresher ones.

Creating (limited) templated content

Another time-saver is having some content that’s ready to go. Note, this content should never be the content of the pitch itself, as you’ll want that to be uniquely tailored to the journalist’s query.

However, it is a good idea to have these on-hand and ready:

1. Your bio – Create 1-2 sentences that cover your title, business name, and a brief statement about your expertise. You might even have several variations for different topics. For instance, I respond to queries about email marketing, blogging, and PPC, so each version of my bio directly addresses each subject.
2. Links to your social media profiles and website URL for article attribution
3. A link to your headshot – Note, when journalists receive pitches through their anonymized HARO email address, the HARO inbox will not properly render image attachments. Therefore, you will want your headshot stored in the cloud and publicly accessible in case the writer wants to use it.

Submitting successful HARO pitches

These tips will help you become a trusted HARO source:

1. Only reply to queries for which you are qualified to answer.
2. Keep your answer succinct and relevant to the query – it’s almost never a good idea to copy/paste a press release. Instead, answer thoughtfully. Answer the question and briefly explain your relevant expertise. Give concrete examples if you can.
3. Use conversational language instead of business jargon. Write like you talk, so your answers come across as organic.
4. Don’t be salesy. The journalist isn’t looking to promote you or your product, but instead is looking for the best quotes that will help the article. Try to meet the journalist’s needs, not your own.
5. Include contact details in case the journalist wants to ask any follow-up questions.

Example pitch

A few weeks ago, a HARO query came across that I felt I had the right expertise for:

Calling all marketing pros! We’re looking for some input from AdWords experts on the following prompt:

How does content impact your AdWords quality score, and how does your quality score impact CPC and ad rank?

ABOUT US: Brandpoint is a Twin Cities-based content marketing agency and we’re constantly updating our blog to educate prospects and clients about the latest tips and trends in the industry (check it out at brandpoint.com/blog).

Requirements:

Must be in the marketing industry. Please submit no more than a 300-word response. Include a short bio, including current job position and link to relevant website. Your answer may appear on our next blog post.

Paying attention to all the requirements (word count, short bio, link, etc) I responded with the following:

Hi Valerie:

Here is my input on your HARO request. I hope it helps! Reach out if you have any questions.

Without a Quality Score, it would be almost impossible for smaller advertisers to compete against large companies with limitless budgets – the big guys would simply outbid them and win every time. AdWords introduced Quality Score to improve the user experience, as well as make the playing field a little fairer for those competing in advertising auctions.

Your ad rank is a combination of your Quality Score and your CPC bid, so as your Quality Score goes up, your average CPC may go down. This is a great incentive to work on your Quality Score.

To improve Quality Score, make sure the keywords you’re bidding on are relevant to the ad copy you use, and those same keywords are prevalent on your landing page. Don’t go so far as to keyword-stuff, though – the algorithm is smarter than that.

Another way to improve your Quality Score is to include a privacy policy that demonstrates your company treats user data responsibly.

Finally, it’s a good idea to do some landing page testing with various layouts and copy because the algorithm will also reward pages with high conversion rates and user interaction with a better Quality Score.

Bio: Kim Kohatsu is the founder of Charles Ave Marketing, a certified Google AdWords Partner. She specializes in PPC and content marketing.

Website: CharlesAveMktg.com and/or PPCconsultantLA.com

Thanks!

In my pitch, I not only explained my expertise but also tried to demonstrate my expertise in my reply. I used conversational language, and kept my answer short and “quotable.” I included both dos and don’ts, and gave tips on how to improve.

Update, Jan 10, 2020: Part of my pitch was used in the final article on Brandpoint. I also created a detailed post of my own about Quality Score.

Successful HARO pitches

Using HARO, I’ve been able to gain PR for myself and Charles Ave Marketing in Glamour magazine, Social Media Today, and Girls in Tech, among many others.

These posts make buzzworthy fodder for our social media networks and raise our business profile in the eyes of prospective clients.

Are you using HARO for your business? What results have you seen?

HARO, or Help A Reporter Out, is one of the best (free!) tools in a content marketer’s arsenal. In a nutshell, HARO is an email newsletter that gets sent three times daily. The newsletter consists of journalists and bloggers seeking sources for upcoming stories. The article topics range widely; you’ll find everything from home-buying to makeup to personal finance to agribusiness, and much, much more.

Using HARO as a journalist

When writing content, HARO is a useful tool for finding sources. I’ve relied on it heavily while writing the PickFu blog, especially when I needed a breadth of responses from business owners. I’ve been connected to some interesting sources including mobile app developers, e-commerce site owners, product photographers, and self-publishing authors all over the world.

This is how it works: You sign in to your HARO account and submit a query. These queries are then approved by the HARO team to be included in an upcoming mailing. A query consists of the following elements:

• Title: The title or topic of your article (this doesn’t need to be your final SEO’d and tested article title, but it is the headline that will appear in the HARO newsletter)
• Query: A brief description of the story you are developing and the kinds of answers or sources you are looking for.
• Requirements: Here, you can include any must-haves or preferences for your sources. For instance, you might specify that you’re only interested in people from a specific region like New York City, or that you’re looking for end clients only, not marketing or PR agency reps.
• Suggested Post Date: This optional field enables you to request a specific date and a specific mailing time for your post (there are morning, afternoon, and evening editions of each mailing). These requests are subject to availability, and if the list editors cannot accommodate your request, it will be included in the mailing following your requested time slot.
• Primary and Secondary Categories:  The HARO audience is subdivided into specific newsletter subscriptions, including Business and Finance, High Tech, Sports, and more. The “General” category is basically a grab-bag of topics. Here, you’ll choose two categories for your article query.
• Deadline to receive pitches: This is the date and time when you will stop receiving pitches from sources.

You’ll receive an email confirmation when your HARO query has been approved. It will then be sent to HARO’s mailing list, and you’ll begin to receive pitches from sources who saw your query and responded to it.

My top tips for submitting HARO queries

Timing

If you have a long window of time to accept pitches, it seems logical that you would submit your query and provide sources that long window of time. However, HARO’s approval process doesn’t actually work that way.

Let’s say you can accept pitches from now until the Friday two weeks from now. If you submit your query today and include Friday two weeks from now as your submission due date, your query likely won’t get looked at by the HARO team until next week, and it will get emailed in HARO’s Wednesday or Thursday edition two weeks from now.

A better idea is to submit your query immediately, assign a submission date of two or three days from now, let pitches come in, and, if you need more or aren’t happy with the quality of the pitches, submit the query again.

Writing

Keep your query succinct but specific. Include direct questions that will elicit direct responses. For instance, “Marketing agencies: what’s the biggest marketing mistake you see clients make?” is a better prompt than, “Marketing agencies: what tips would you offer to clients?” because it offers a specific framing of what not to do rather than an open-ended question whose answers will run the gamut of the respondents’ collective imagination.

Requirements

Be specific about what kinds of sources you favor. For instance, I always include, “No phone interviews will be conducted. Please include your entire answer in your pitch.” The reason is that the first few times I submitted a HARO query, I received templated press releases or bios asking me to call rather than answers to my questions. Of course, some journalists want to conduct phone interviews, or maybe even video interviews. They should be specific about that, too. Help your sources give you the exact kind of information you’re looking for by spelling it out for them. You might even go so far as to include how you’d like the information formatted, e.g.,

Name:

Title:

Business Name:

URL for attribution:

Twitter handle:

1-3 sentence answer:

Images

Oftentimes, you might want an image to accompany a source’s answer, such as a headshot. However, HARO anonymizes your email address and sends replies to you through a centralized inbox on its site. You will also receive replies to your normal email inbox, but because HARO takes the step to anonymize and protect your email address, images that are included as email attachments will not render correctly.

If you would like images included in your HARO pitches, ask for them to be hosted online and for your source to include a link. This way, they might send you a link to a Twitter profile picture or a headshot on a website rather than a misrendered image attachment.

Follow-up

Once your article publishes, I recommend emailing your sources and letting them know. I include both sources I used and sources I did not use in this mailing. This way, everyone will click on the link to see if their quote was included. I encourage them to share the article, and in the case of PickFu, I even include a referral link for a discount. This way, if they’ve never heard of PickFu but may find it useful (after all, they are exactly the kind of people we’re targeting with the service), they get a small reward for their participation in my HARO query, regardless of whether I used their input on my article.

I have an email template that I use to get in touch with sources. I use the BCC field so that they only see their own email address in the To: field, not everyone else’s.

Feel free to use the template to follow up with your own sources:

Subject: Thanks for your HARO submission!

Dear (generic group name), Thank you for your thoughtful HARO submissions regarding (topic).

The post is now live: (article link)

While we weren’t able to use every submission, they were all carefully considered and appreciated. I hope whether you were included, you’ll find the article useful enough to share! Don’t worry – we’re constantly querying the (generic group name) community, so there will be plenty of opportunities.

(insert marketing copy here if appropriate)

(Signature)

Here’s how that email appears when it’s completed:

If you have more tips on how to use HARO as a journalist, please comment below! And be sure to read the second installment of this series, Getting the Most Out of HARO: Using HARO as a Source.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Update, May 23, 2018: StumbleUpon is shutting down on June 30. (WAH!) Sorry, folks.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5524″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Content discovery networks drive paid clicks to your blog articles. Two big players in the space are Outbrain and Taboola. But there’s another network that I’m bullish on, and, in my opinion, it performs better than either of these. What is this magical network? StumbleUpon.

What is StumbleUpon?

The way I explain StumbleUpon to clients is that it’s like TV channel surfing, but on the internet. Basically, you’re not sure what you want to view, but rather than flipping through TV programs, you flip through websites.

When you sign up as a StumbleUpon user, you tell the network what subject categories you’re interested in. As you start to look at articles through the network, you can also tell the platform which pieces of content you like and don’t like. The algorithm factors in how long you engage with each site, and whether you’re motivated to share articles. Using this data, the platform predicts what content you might be interested in next.

From a user perspective, your web browser looks exactly the same, with one small exception – the browser bar, which I’ve highlighted in red:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4892″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]Within this bar, you’ll notice a few things. First, the red Stumble button. This is how you “change the channel.” Each time you push it, a new article appears.

Next to the red button is a thumbs-up. You push this to tell the algorithm you liked this article and to show you more articles like it. Similarly, there is a thumbs-down button to tell it that you’re not interested in seeing articles like this.

There is a share drop-down menu so you can easily post the article to Facebook, Twitter, or share it via email or with people you’re connected to on StumbleUpon.

The bookmark icon enables you to add that article to a list you’ve created, such as articles you intend to read later or articles related to an upcoming trip.

As you can see from the image, I was looking at the “Trending” category, but by pulling that option down, I can choose a different category. The categories shown here are ones that I’ve told StumbleUpon I was interested in, like American History, Food/cooking, and Dogs.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_single_image image=”4893″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]Each time I “Stumble” something, I land in a different corner of the internet. Sure, I can tell the algorithm in which direction I want to go (Bizarre/oddities, please), but the fun is that I never quite know where I’m going to end up.

StumbleUpon for advertisers

Why is this network a good thing for advertisers? There are a few reasons that I’ll go into in depth:

• Interest targeting
• Sites, not ads
• Organic exposure

Interest targeting

The main reason I like StumbleUpon is that you can target people by what they’ve already expressed interest in. While the Categories shown to the user (as seen above) are broad, on the advertiser side, they become more specific.

StumbleUpon divides its content into three tiers: Category, Subcategory, and Interest. For advertisers, you can target any of these tiers.

Here’s an example. A Category like Home and Travel is the broadest subject area. Several subcategories lie beneath that, including Food and Beverage, Home and Garden, and Travel. Under the Food and Beverage subcategory, several Interests are nested, including Beer, Cigars, Restaurants, and Wine.

So let’s say I’m promoting a blog article about great beer destinations around the world. I could target users who have told StumbleUpon they like Beer (which on the advertiser side is an Interest) and Travel (which is a Subcategory).[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_single_image image=”4895″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]Stumble also offers advertisers what it calls “Interest Bundles,” which include Gamers, Health Nuts, Financial Gurus, Paranormal & Conspiracy Theorists, Techies, and Treehuggers. To make your campaign targeting simpler, you could choose one of these pre-determined demographic groups. In the image below, I’ve chosen Bookworms, and this bundle includes all the Interests to the right.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_single_image image=”4897″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]So all in all, StumbleUpon offers you an additional targeting option that Outbrain and Taboola don’t. Just like them, you can target by geographic region, gender, age, and device. But because you can also target interest areas, the audience will be more likely to engage with your content. (To be fair, Outbrain and Taboola try to match your content with similar content in its network algorithmically. But I don’t think they always do the greatest job of it.)

Sites, not ads

Another standout feature of StumbleUpon is that the reader lands directly on your content. It takes ad creation out of the equation altogether.

On Outbrain or Taboola, you create ads with various headlines and images, and the algorithm will favor the best-performing combination.

In order to land on your article, a user has to go through the following path:

User reads a piece of content where your Outbrain or Taboola ad resides → User clicks on the ad → User lands on your page

On the other hand, with StumbleUpon, the path is more direct:

User is surfing on StumbleUpon → User lands on your page

Sure, for an advertiser it’s nice to be spared having to create ads. But more importantly, it’s an easier flow from the user’s perspective. Saving that click means fewer bounces. Rather than an ad having to set expectations and then your landing page either meeting or not meeting those expectations, a user can immediately see whether or not she is interested in reading the page. And there’s no “fat-finger” accidental clicks on your ad, either.

Organic exposure

Finally, perhaps the best part about advertising on StumbleUpon is that (unlike on Google), your organic and paid performance work in concert.

When someone Stumbles on your page, that Stumble is counted regardless of whether it was a paid click or an organic click. The more Stumbles you get, the more likes and shares will follow. And, to the StumbleUpon user, there is no visible difference between paid and organic content. No “Sponsored Content” disclaimer appears anywhere on your page.

Even after your paid campaign is over, your content may continue to receive organic (unpaid) clicks. I’ve seen this many times for different clients.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_single_image image=”4901″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]Here’s a recent report for a StumbleUpon campaign. After the Paid and Unpaid clicks stopped coming in (because the campaign ended), we continued to receive Earned clicks on articles we had posted to StumbleUpon in the past.

In addition, StumbleUpon offers the option to pay for “Engaged Visitors Only.” This higher CPC (you add $0.05 to your bid) means that you’ll only pay for visitors who stay on your page for at least five seconds. If a user bounces or hits the Stumble button before five seconds, you pay nothing.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_single_image image=”4900″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]In this screenshot, you can see how StumbleUpon breaks down the various clicks this advertiser received. 993 clicks were Paid, meaning 993 people stayed on the page for at least five seconds. 479 were Earned, meaning these clicks came organically and were thus free. 225 were Unpaid, meaning 225 people left the page before five seconds had elapsed.

As an aside, StumbleUpon will factor in your Unpaid and Earned clicks in your CPC, creating what they refer to as your effective CPC, or eCPC. They’ll add up what you’ve spent and divide that number by the total number of clicks — paid, unpaid, and earned — and that number, your eCPC, will show on your dashboard. If you want a more apples-to-apples comparison against other content discovery networks, you should divide your spend by paid clicks only, giving you a “true” CPC.

Anecdotally, I can report that paid clicks on StumbleUpon are generally a fraction of what they are on Outbrain and Taboola, and average time on site and pages per visit is higher. For one client, the (true) CPC on StumbleUpon was $0.15, while a campaign that ran on Outbrain at the same time averaged a CPC of $0.53. Because of the disparity, fewer clicks came through Outbrain, and yet the average time on site for an Outbrain visitor was 11 seconds shorter than for a StumbleUpon visitor. It’s just one example, but in my experience, not unique.

One final benefit is that all visits from StumbleUpon, whether paid or organic, will appear in your Google Analytics data as Referral Traffic. This looks better to the Google algorithm than Paid traffic (though Paid traffic won’t hurt you), so more referral traffic may improve your SEO.

Have you had a good experience promoting content on StumbleUpon? Am I being unfair to Outbrain and Taboola? I’d love to know. Drop a comment or tweet me @kimkohatsu.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”4827″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

Author: KIM KOHATSU

Kim Kohatsu is the founder of Charles Ave Marketing, where she brings the power and reach of Madison Ave to small businesses and startups.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-facebook” size=”xs” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcharlesavemktg||target:%20_blank|”][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-twitter” size=”xs” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fkimkohatsu||target:%20_blank|”][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-linkedin” size=”xs” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fkimkohatsu%2F||target:%20_blank|”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Even before Charles Ave Marketing became Charles Ave Marketing, I have been the Managing Editor of the Menuism blog. I’m proud to say Menuism has been a client for four years and counting.

In those four years, I’ve managed our team of writers, contributed my own posts, developed content partnerships, and worked with guest bloggers. I was even a guest on the Beyond Your Blog podcast, where I spoke about what I look for in an article pitch.

But in those same four years, I’ve received far more pitches containing what I don’t look for in a guest pitch. Here are some of the worst offenders:

Spam-o-rama

Look, I get it. I might not be the only editor you’re pitching to. But you should act like I am! Don’t send a bulk email that doesn’t even try to hide being a bulk email.

I covered up the email addresses below so as not to publish them. But this person sent me and 39 other people a “pitch” (if you could call it that). My guess is his email provider wouldn’t let him add more. Don’t do this.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_single_image image=”4847″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]

What to do instead: Personalize.

The more personal you can get, the better. Know the person’s name you’re reaching out to. Mention the section of the blog where you think your post would fit. Juliet White wrote a great pitch back in 2013 and we featured her posts on Menuism for almost three years, until she had to step away for personal reasons. She even mentions the Menuism mascot Foodha and his Foodhist philosophy on dessert. Here’s how she got in:[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_single_image image=”4846″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]

Not telling me who you are

Most of the pitches I receive are spam. But even some of the non-spam ones have spammish tendencies. One particularly egregious error is not telling me who you are. And if I don’t know that, why should I let you blog on my site?

Actual introductions I’ve seen:

• “This is James Hundson from Canada.” Oh, really, James? I’m not from Canada, that must be why I don’t know who you are.
• “My name is Louise and I manage the blog for SignatureCare. I’ve been a fan of your blog for some time and there seems to be some overlap between our audiences.” Louise neglected to tell me what SignatureCare is, what it does, or where the supposed overlap in our audience lies.
• “My name is Alex. I’m a business blogger on the rise. I noticed that a lot of entrepreneurs try their luck in the blogging industry, so I decided to also share my knowledge and expertise. I feel like your website could give me the exposure I need.” Yes, Alex, your needs come first.

The whole idea of a guest blog is to demonstrate your expertise on a subject. Not including relevant experience helps me determine you are no expert on blogging.

What to do instead: Make a professional introduction.

Don’t simply tell me what you want to write; tell me why you are the person to write it.

Here’s part of a pitch I received and accepted. The writer didn’t know my name, but the rest of his email worked well enough. It told me who he is and what he does, and offered some short but specific insights to demonstrate his knowledge of the subject matter:[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_single_image image=”4851″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]Andy’s email contained two typos (can you spot them?), and the awkward phrase “biggest and most variety,” but I overlooked it because that’s what editors are for. You can check out the guest post on Portland wineries here.

Writing badly

Because most pitches I receive are spammers from foreign countries, the errors are a dead giveaway. Some examples:

• “My name is Sadi Turaev and I am food lover.”
• “Myself gracy from India wanted to become active partner by submitting well researched content for your website menuism.com. I have good experience in constructing innovative content related to health. The aim is to develop unique and interesting content which can attract the visitors. Our goal is to provide high quality content that can naturally attract traffic and links. This way we both win!”
• “Hi admin,
  Hope you keeping well, we need guest post on you blog please tell me how much you will charge for per post.
  (menuism.com)
  reply me soon.”

Those are easy enough to spot. But sometimes actual humans don’t take the time to consider that the pitch email is a writing sample, too… and more than likely, it’s the only sample that I’ll ever read.

Here’s one example. The email looked promising; it had a logo at the bottom and came from what looked to be a reputable domain (turns out it’s a scraper site, but I didn’t find that out until many months later while writing this article).

The biggest problem with the email is the writing is so bad. Sure, it’s grammatically correct; the subjects and verb tenses match up. But when an entire email comprises six sentences, and four of them end in an exclamation point, there’s no other way to say this: you’re a terrible writer.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_single_image image=”4845″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]

What to do instead: Write well.

I wish I didn’t have to say this, but if you call yourself a writer, you have to know how to write. It goes beyond spelling and grammar. Good syntax, sentence structure, and clarity are paramount.

Here’s a recent guest post pitch that I accepted. The email itself speaks to the quality of writing I can expect from a future blog. It uses colorful language that conveys passion for and proficiency of the topic.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_single_image image=”4848″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d”][vc_column_text]

In summary

For a pitch to work, it has to be personalized. It’s okay to start from a template, as long as you verify that each field works for each email. For those of you with experience writing messages on dating websites, it’s a lot like that – you have a basic intro paragraph that you copy/paste, but you customize each outreach by including a name, something that caught your eye, and where you think the attraction may lie.

Similarly, when you pitch a guest post, talk about the site you’re pitching, why your article is a good fit, and why you’re the person to contribute it.

Include your relevant experience. It’s not enough to say you’re a blogger or a writer. What is your blog about? What inspired you to start it? Don’t assume I’ll seek these details out myself – I won’t.

Treat the pitch as its own writing sample. Choose your words carefully. Keep it concise. Proofread.

Pitching is a numbers game; you have to be patient and pitch many editors. But looking at each site’s submission guidelines and following them exactly will be a more efficient use of your time than writing one boilerplate email and using the “spray and pray” method. You’ll see more responses, and from better and more reputable sites.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”4827″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

Author: KIM KOHATSU

Kim Kohatsu is the founder of Charles Ave Marketing, where she brings the power and reach of Madison Ave to small businesses and startups.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-facebook” size=”xs” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcharlesavemktg||target:%20_blank|”][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-twitter” size=”xs” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fkimkohatsu||target:%20_blank|”][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-linkedin” size=”xs” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fkimkohatsu%2F||target:%20_blank|”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Welcome to #WritingWednesday, where I talk about ways to improve your copywriting.

In this inaugural post, I address one of my biggest pet peeves: mistakenly referring to a business as some unquantifiable they, rather than a proper it.

It sounds so conspiratorial – who are they? Do you mean a business’s management team? A restaurant’s chefs? If that’s the case, by all means, use they.

But in most cases, to refer to a business as an entity, you should use it.

To all the Mitt Romneys out there, I realize that in America, “corporations are people, my friend.” But even to accept that premise, a corporation is a single entity, making it “a person,” not a plural entity of “people” (although it’s comprised of people).

Indeed, it’s common parlance to hear something like, “I only go to McDonald’s because I like their fries.” But just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s right – certainly not when you’re writing for business about business.

To illustrate the point, I visited the New York Times‘s business section online to grab an example from today’s news. Emphasis added is mine:

Deutsche Bank had said that it would no longer finance so-called mountaintop removal projects, which involve extracting coal from the surface of mountains, often leaving large gashes in the landscape. But its public policy stopped short of the commitment to a broad retreat that many of the other large banks had made.

In the same paragraph was this sentence:

Other large banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, revised their policies to reflect a broader pullback from coal mining.

Keep in mind that because JPMorgan and BOA are grouped together (making the subject plural), they is the proper word.

It all begs the question – why is it so common that we call businesses “they,” anyway?

I can think of three reasons. The first is that in business, people take all the actions. When Deutsche Bank decided it wouldn’t finance mountaintop removals, the move was likely by the direction of the board or a company officer. However, because the decision-maker is not specified, and the company is referred to in the abstract, the “it rule” still applies.

The same article provides an example where the people are specified, calling for “they”:

Last week, six senior members of Deutsche Bank’s metals and mining investment banking team, which was responsible for overseeing deals in the coal industry, said they were decamping for Jefferies, a smaller, scrappy New York investment bank…

Another underlying cause is that in order to sound more friendly and approachable, companies often talk about themselves using the inclusive we. Watch a few commercials, and you’ll almost certainly hear, “At Company X, we believe…” I’ve certainly written that way about my own clients for years. It’s an effort to humanize that which isn’t human – a brand.

Finally, a sometimes cited reason for the it/they conundrum is a difference in British English and American English. Several sites I found claimed that it’s more common in the Queen’s English to refer to a corporation as they.

However, after spending just a few clicks on bbc.co.uk, dailymail.co.uk, and telegraph.co.uk, it’s clear that all three news outlets refer to a business as a singular it.

Still, it made me think back to that iconic Frankie Goes to Hollywood t-shirt:

Alluding to the song “Relax,” the 1984 shirt caused confusion among American fans who didn’t understand why Frankie Say Relax, rather than Frankie Says Relax. But Frankie wasn’t a guy; it was the band. None of the British band’s members were named Frankie, either. So maybe that British/American explanation has some merit.

Whatever the reason, Charles Ave Say A Business Is An It, Not a They.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I’ve started many personal blogs… started being the operative word. But I failed to follow through with what a blog truly is — a commitment.

The grand irony of course, is that content marketing is one of my specialties at Charles Ave. I’ve strategized, contributed to, and edited blogs for years. I’ve recruited writers, formatted posts, forged content partnerships, and promoted articles. In the midst of doing that, I also made excuses: I was so busy managing other companies’ blogs, I figured, how could I possibly maintain my own?

Well… no more. I’m hoping that this blog, being my own company’s and all, is the one that breaks the cycle.

But as I tell every client who launches a blog – it won’t work unless you work at it. And working at it requires long-term dedication to the blog’s objectives. So, you have to ask the basic question: what’s the point of a blog?

Why blog?

Any internet marketing hack will tell you that “content is king” and throw out buzzwords like thought leadership. And obviously, beneath any marketing initiative is the intention to build sales. But you can’t start a blog and expect the needle to move immediately. The needle might not even move a few months down the road. In fact, your blog might never generate a lead or make a sale… unless you do it right.

The basic point of a blog is to build a community that is interested in what you have to say. And no one is interested in listening to an overly aggressive salesperson.

Instead, a blog is an invitation, and your website is the party.

Ain’t no party like a blogging party

Let’s see how much I can torture this party analogy, shall we? When you host a party, you carefully consider the guests: who are they, and, knowing them, what would they enjoy? Should you prepare a fancy multi-course dinner or simply order pizza? Are there ice breaker games or do you leave it more freeform?

In the same way, a new blogger should define the kind of people he or she wants to attend, and then consider what those people would like. These profiles are sometimes called personas. For the Charles Ave blog, for example, I’m most interested in readers who are

• current clients, to showcase their work and help them see what Charles Ave is busy with

• fellow marketers who might benefit from my expertise and experience

• potential clients, to get a feel for what it’s like to work with Charles Ave

• friends, partners, and potential vendors who could help me out on future projects

Kissmetrics created a helpful guide for developing user personas for SEO.

Now back to the party planning.

This is a new blog, so my first few posts are basically a housewarming. I’m going to invite an intimate circle of guests – mostly friends I’m already close to, and maybe a few neighbors to try and get to know them better. It’s a small gathering, but that’s just fine.

As I grow into my home, my parties will get more elaborate. I might have theme parties on my blog in the form of regular features. One early idea I have is #WritingWednesday, where I share tips on how to improve your copywriting. Hopefully, guests who drop in on this event will want to come again.

If they do, the guests themselves are the ones that build the buzz. For the past few years, I’ve hosted an “Orphan Christmas” at my house for friends who don’t visit family for the holidays. Now that I’ve established this pattern, by October someone usually approaches me to make sure I’m hosting Christmas again. That’s exactly the kind of anticipation I want for the Charles Ave blog. I might add a podcast element in the future, or perhaps some live streaming events, but I won’t get overly ambitious with my party prep until I know that someone’s going to come.

Julia Child famously said that a party without cake is just a meeting. So it goes with any party on your blog. You can’t simply host a meeting and hope that people talk about it, share it, and love it. You have to offer them cake: something enjoyable, worth taking pictures of, that deserves to be shared.

Yes, there are parties meant to sell guests something. But even Tupperware parties include cake! And I would never host a Tupperware party without first cultivating a group of guests that consistently comes over – the kind of guest list that’s receptive to my soft pitches because it’s intermixed with cake.

The ultimate ambition is that down the line, my party grows so huge that I need to set up a stage, find liquor sponsors, and sell VIP tickets. But first things first: housewarming.

Come again?

So that’s a quick peek at the beginnings of the Charles Ave blog. Whaddaya think? Will you come back next time? Did I beat the party analogy to death successfully, or can you stretch it even further? Let me know in the comments.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”4827″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

Author: KIM KOHATSU

Kim Kohatsu is the founder of Charles Ave Marketing, where she brings the power and reach of Madison Ave to small businesses and startups.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-facebook” size=”xs” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcharlesavemktg||target:%20_blank|”][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-twitter” size=”xs” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fkimkohatsu||target:%20_blank|”][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-linkedin” size=”xs” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fkimkohatsu%2F||target:%20_blank|”][/vc_column][/vc_row]