Leading national daily deals site BuyWithMe announced today its sixth acquisition of the year, the purchase of TownHog.com, a San Francisco-based daily deals provider. A venture of Dotblu Inc., TownHog has developed an extensive national footprint, merchant relationships and a significant and loyal consumer following since launching in 2009.
Today, Leading social discovery network LivingSocial (www.livingsocial.com) announced the launch of 9 new markets in the U.S. and UK including St. Paul, MN; Mesa, AZ; Eugene, OR; West Chicago; Columbia, South Carolina; Liverpool, UK; Brighton, UK; Bristol, UK and Birmingham, UK. LivingSocial is now live in 111 markets in the U.S., Canada, UK and Ireland, with more than 10 million subscribers.
“LivingSocial is all about discovering new activities in your neighborhood – whether it’s a gourmet cupcake shop you’ve wanted to try out, or a spa that offers the best massages – we are able to provide unique curated experiences at a great value,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial. “These nine new markets now have the opportunity to explore and take advantage of LivingSocial’s tailored adventures in their area or the places they visit.”
As the premier social discovery network, LivingSocial lets anyone experience the hottest restaurants, shops, activities and services in their area. The company has dedicated area experts on the ground in every market working directly with business owners, and constantly researching the best in local adventures to bring a savings of 50% to 70% for consumers.
Cashing in on LivingSocial Deals is easy: the site offers a new promotion every morning, announced through its website, daily email, Twitter, Facebook, iPhone or Android app. Live for 24 hours, the Deal is available to anyone who clicks on it. Additionally, LivingSocial‘s unique referral model gives users their Deal for free if they refer three friends who also participate.
With an audience of 10 million subscribers, LivingSocial is able to provide local merchants with the unprecedented ability to reach both local customers and a worldwide audience as well as introduce great local experiences at incredible values.
For a full list of markets where LivingSocial is live or to sign up your location, go to http://www.livingsocial.com.
GSI Commerce aquired Pepperjam Network (Affiliate). Pepperjam is another cool place for your to make money blogging and find great marketing solutions. If you have a blog you may want to join Pepperjam. Now would be a good time, as GSI has the money to invest in Pepperjam and open more possibilities. It will sure be exciting to see how Pepperjam will expand. It would be a good idea for you to check out what they can offer you to help expand your online business. This is the season to make some money.
Website Grader is a Free Online Tool that can help you determine the marketing effectiveness or your website or blog. Website Grader looks at website traffic, SEO, social popularity, length of domain and other technical factors.
It provides you an overall score at a glance, allowing you to view how well you are ranking in sites such as Alexa, Technorati, Google Page Rank etc……
Google Analytics offers you a look at the traffic you are receiving. This tool offers you a look at how others rate you. Knowing is half the battle, once you have an idea how you rank you will be able to make the changes needed. Keep in mind, that SEO is important for your site’s success. No matter if you are blogging or selling online. Your goal is to drive qualified traffic to your site.
You can also take a look how your competitors are ranking and what keywords they are using. There are other sites that I will share with you to help you understand your rankings, SEO and Keywords.
The site is easy to use all you need to do is type in the website address and Click Generate Report.
I ran a report on Whateverebay – My score is a 93/100. Always, room for improvement.
Do you have any tools that have helped you improved your sites rankings? Are you surprised to find how you currently rank with Website Grader?
DraggonBlogger has created a helpful video on how to submit a blog to BlogNet Awards.
BlogNet Awards is a great site to submit or vote for other blogs for the prestigious Best Blog Award per category. I really like the fact that I get to find tons of new blogs that I may have not come across. You can enter your blog or you can enter to win Cash prizes. Even if you do not want to participate you can certainly get a good idea on what other bloggers are doing and where they are headed with them.
You can find other bloggers in your niche and perhaps find new ideas for posting, design or even other affiliates you can contact to make money from your blog. You can see what others are saying about the blogs in your category and hopefully that will help in the growth of your own blog.
If any of you enter your blog, let me know, I will of course support all my readers.
You have heard it before and I am here to remind you again. Content is the KEY to get your online store Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Most of us when setting up our first online store we will rely on the description provided by the manufacturer. Let’s say you are selling Entertainment Centers. You have the stock image provided from the manufacturer, the dimensions, specs and a brief description of the Entertainment Center.
Just as if you where to open a retail location; you will need to research your demographics but most importantly you will need to know your competitors. You might find them on every corner or even next door. You may be in a shopping mall with a large retailer as an anchor store. This might bring you some foot traffic but you want to convert that into a sale.
How do you distinguish yourself from your competitors to get the traffic
Well, just as you would in a retail store, you will want to have eye catching displays, display what the customers are looking for and provide them with that extra service and support not found elsewhere.
With your online store it is your content that will stand out for you. Content is what will get you to stand out from the competition, followed by Customer service, price, feedback etc…
What has worked for me is Content. Especially now, I do not want to spend money with Adwords. This can be extremely costly.
Keep in mind that most manufacturers will have the description crated by someone overseas that may not be familiar with our market trends.
This is where you personal knowledge of the item gives you the advantage. Keep in mind the description provided usually will have name of the collection, color of finish and the obvious the item. Most of the lines of products I offer, I have at some point had on the floor on display or even in my own home. If you do not have a retail or showroom, visit the manufacturer’s showroom. Contact your sales rep, take you Camera and take notes.
Now, with so many online stores in a hurry to set up, they will just add it to the inventory as is. The Search engines will pick it up but it will be looked as Duplicate Content.
Duplicate Content is when other sites have the same description. How will Search Engines will look at it? Well, it will come down to Who Had it First, What is the Relevancy, When was it Posted and How many keywords.
To end up on Google’s first page of searches you want to offer Unique Content:
Your goal is to catch the search engines attention and the way to do that is with unique content. If done correctly, you will attract the attention of the search engines rather quickly. This can take time and work. So do be patient. You can also submit your product information directly to Froogle for free. Most shopping carts offer this service.
Think about how you would search for the Keyword “Entertainment Center”
Possibilities could be:
Or perhaps the user may even type the Name of the Manufacture and Name of Collection. Think about possible mis-spellings.
Always keep your customer’s needs in mind. If you are selling children’s items, you definitely want to offer parents the reassurance that your products meet all safety standards. Providing articles, updates on membership sites and offering links to reputable Consumer agencies. The customer is a lot more likely to buy from the store offering the most information vs. the best price. The search engines will pick up your Unique Content and rank you higher, thereby sending your more leads for free. With the proper tools you will convert those leads into sales.
A few Tips:
The Google Keyword tools is an amazing tool that offers you in a glimpse the popularity of the keyword. You may also use long tail keywords.
Quick reference- check out this video on how to use the Google Keyword Tool
What tools do you use to help you rank higher on the search engines? Do you find yourself creating your own description of the item or do you use the manufacturers description? Do you use Froogle or any other Shopping site to bring you traffic? I hope some of this information is helpful. You will be surprised how effective creating Unique Content will benefit your ranking and ultimately your sales.
