PATRON SAINT PRODUCTIONS, INC. ~ CHAT TRANSCRIPT ~ Patron Saint Productions, Inc. Online Publicity Chat Series Topic: Session #3: Web Site Linkage Campaign Guest: Steve O'Keefe, author of "Complete Guide to Internet Publicity" Date: January 29, 2004 Hello, welcome, Guru! Thanks, Steve, and good afternoon! For some reason, attendance is very light today. I'll wait a few minutes before starting to give folks time to get in the room. Welcome, Sondra. Sorry I was kind of tough on you last week. If you want to pick up the thread of that discussion we can do so now while we're waiting for folks to arrive. Weren't we talking about the importance of search engine rank? Steve, I don't remember you being tough on me... Hmmm... Search engine rank. I was wondering how items with similar or identical names get ranked. I think that was my question. Sondra, search engine rank is based on many factors. Perhaps the most important is how many sites link to you. That's going to be the topic for today's chat. So, with that, let me get started. A Linkage Campaign is the systematic process of soliciting inbound links to your site. When search engines rank your site they consider how many inbound links there are to your site. So linkage is important for search engine rank. But what's more important is the traffic coming to your site directly from those links. This traffic tends to be more focused than search engine traffic. In other words, people using search engines are often looking for *something*. Maybe your site has that something and maybe it doesn't. But people coming through links are often looking for YOU. They have some idea already what you offer, and they want what they think you have. I found early on that one link to my web site off the Workplace forum on America Online has generated more traffic to my site than all the search engines combined. So these links are very important to both the quantity and quality of traffic. So, what is the systematic approach for getting these links? I like to start by making a *link button*. This is a small, graphical link to your site -- often called a logo link. Some tips for making link buttons. They should be: * SMALL (under 10k in file size). * SIMPLE (branding, not cramming). * UNIVERSAL (looks good against any color background). * TIMELESS (do not put anything in your button that dates it). Examples: The first button I worked on for Dr. Seuss's site was nice -- the head of the Cat in the Hat: Good branding. Then the Seuss estate made me load it down with trademark boilerplate. Hey, there's no room for that crap in a link button. To make a button UNIVERSAL, put a border around it. That will insure it is set off against any color background. Make the link "transparent," and it can have a distinctive, cookie-cutter shape. That helps it stand out (like a star, or an hourglass). So, is this what users on other sites will click on to get to my site? Sondra, correct. Netscape at one time had a button that said "Version 2.0" on it. It looks pretty stupid now that Netscape is in Version 9 or something. So don't insure your buttons will become obsolete! I thought they would click on a URL... Sondra, the graphic is often hotlinked to the URL. Some sites will install a graphical link, others will just install the URL. The html coding is very simple to make the button a hotlink. After you prepare a link button (and you don't have to, by the way -- don't let the lack of a button stop you from conducting a linkage campaign) -- you prepare a LINKLETTER. That's an e-mail template that you use over and over again when making link requests. Great linkletters follow the standard, four- part pitch: 1. Stroke. 2. Pitch 3. Credentials. 4. Action alternatives. There is a sample linkletter in the Resources/Templates section of my site. It's a Word document. Download it for free, customize it, and use it for your campaign. Welcome, Lois! We're talking about Linkage Campaigns today. Have a seat. STROKE: Say something nice about the other person's site, such as, "You have an amazing collection of resources on your site!" PITCH: Come to the point; never pussyfoot in e-mail: "Would you consider adding a link to my site?" CREDENTIALS: Tell -- briefly -- why your site is worth linking to. Many people screw up the credentials portion. They say, "I run a consulting firm with clients all over the globe." Who cares? What the person needs to know is that your web site has *GREAT RESOURCES* for helping people. You are asking for a link to *your site*, so you should stress what *your site* has of value not what your company does. ACTION ALTERNATIVES: Offer a graphical link button upon request. Offer to install a link back to their site. Give them the html you want for your link at the bottom of the linkletter. Make it brain-dead easy for them to comply with your request. The sample linkletter on my site has html coding at the bottom -- replace my text with your own and embark on a linkage campaign. A comment: The best linkletter I received for my Lochness-monster.com site was from a Merlin site. He had noticed my Merlin page and wanted not only a link to his page from mine, but also to offer a new page of Merlin information for my site. Irresistible. Lois, you hit it on the nail head -- people cannot resist a little flattery. It gets them to paragraph #2. Right now my site is more like a electronic brochure. It doesn't have much value beyond that. Do I have to add value to embark on a linkage campaign? Yes, Sondra, you do have to add value. Why should someone link to your site? Because they like you? Maybe family members will link, but without strong content, others won't. You need to offer some help resources in your area of expertise. And you need to put these resources, not only on your own site, but on other people's site. We'll cover that topic -- Syndicating Content -- in an upcoming class. Maybe they link because they want their site visitors to find out about my service because it's related to their service... Yes, Sondra, there is some "scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" linking to be had. But the best links come from sites that consider themselves mini-Yahoo's of the field. That is, niche super sites. And you don't get a link or a recommendation from them unless you have compelling content. This dovetails nicely into where I'm headed next. Okay, you have your button, you have your linkletter, now you need a list of sites to approach. The easiest way to find a good site list of people to approach for links is to FIND THE SUPER SITE in every field you can think of. There's someone out there who has already cataloged all the online resources for that field. They pride themselves on having an up-to-date set of links on their site. So, instead of using search engines to find target sites, you find the super site, and work off its links page. You go down the list, one after another, making link requests. In Accounting, the super site is Rutgers Accounting Web: http://www.raw.org. Man, they have a fantastic set of links to everything having to do with accounting. All neatly organized and well-maintained. If you're selling a CPA test prep book, you want to use their site for your linkage campaign. Woohoo! Sondra, are you being sarcastic? No, just no knowledge of accounting whatsoever... In book publishing, there are sites like Publishers Weekly, BookZone (RIP) and Publishers Marketplace. Any field you can think of has a supersite. Find it and your linkage work is half done for you. Okay, let's talk about tracking your results. In the Resources/Templates section of my site you'll find a Linkage Report. This is an html doc, so it will open in your browser. You can "save it as source" and use it to track your own campaigns. When I do work for clients, I bookmark every site where I have asked for a link (also called "making the site a favorite" in Explorer). Then I "annotate the bookmark." That is, I add a short description of the site, the date I made my request, and the name and e-mail address of the person I've pitched. A linkage report can be used in several ways. It is a roadmap to the "Web Sites That Matter" in your industry. It can be modified and installed as a Links page on your own site. You can go back to the people who've placed links to your site, and ask them to install an op-ed article. You're building relationships with the "Web Sites That Matter" in your industry. And that's very powerful marketing. Minutes ago, I got a phone call from the webmaster at About.com's Women's Issues forum. This is a top- 10 traffic site for women on the net. She agreed to host a 10-week talk show for a client on her site. That is amazing - - and no money is changing hands! (Except between me and my client.) This relationship wasn't built overnight. I have installed articles on her site in the past. But, today, I landed what I consider to be the holy grail of online marketing: Your own talk show on a high-traffic web site where your target audience gathers. Congrats! Thank you, Sondra. Some days you win, some days you just keep pitching. So, you start by asking for links, then you seed articles, then you produce programs. All the time, you are using other people's resources. You don't have to have chat facilities on your own site. You don't have to deal with all the expense and hassles of building a "deep content" site. You go to sites that have deep content, and get yourself up front and center. That's smart marketing. You can all do this. It's not rocket science. It just takes time and a generous spirit: Keep giving content till it hurts. Then give some more. So you link with sites that add value to your site? Sondra, you are looking for the highest traffic sites used by your target audience. Tell me, again, what field you are in. Was it event planning? Special events. Okay, so what are the Big Kahuna sites in this field? Can you name one? I'll talk to you offline about the particular challenges of what I am doing. Okay, fair enough. Let's say the Big Kahuna is specialevents.com. And that's where everyone in special events hangs out to find the gossip, the deals. You could ask them for a link, and they might ignore you. Using the linkletter I describe, you aren't just asking them for a link -- you are *giving* them the link text and telling them where you think it should go on their site. You're making it easy on them. In the coming weeks, we'll talk about getting them to host an article, and then getting them to host your show. That ends the lesson. Okay, next week's topic is online content syndication. Have a great week folks, and I'll "see" you next week, same time, same place. __________________________________________________ ABOUT THE GUEST STEVE O'KEEFE is the author of the outdated classic, "Publicity on the Internet" (Wiley, 1997), and the updated new book, "Complete Guide to Internet Publicity" (Wiley, 2002) -- based on over 1000 online campaigns. Steve pioneered many online marketing techniques which are now considered standard practice. Steve's writing has appeared in over 100 publications including The Wall Street Journal, Harper's, Internet World, PR News, Outside, Small Press, Salon, Curio, NetWorth, and HotWired. Steve is a member of the adjunct faculty at Tulane University where he teaches online public relations. He is Executive Director of Patron Saint Productions, Inc., a publishing consultancy specializing in online marketing strategy, campaigns, and training. __________________________________________________ ABOUT THE BOOK Complete Guide to Internet Publicity: Creating and Launching Successful Online Campaigns by Steve O'Keefe Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2002, ISBN 0-471-10580-5, 436 pages, softcover, $34.95) Available in most bookstores online and off. "Nobody knows more about making a splash on the Internet than Steve O'Keefe. And no book reveals better how to do it than this one." -- Fraser P. Seitel, Author of "The Principles of Public Relations" "Steve O'Keefe's book is, by far, the most comprehensive Internet publicity book available. It's a tool that any business owner or publicist needs to read to conduct an effective online PR campaign." -- Lorilyn Bailey, CEO, NewsBuzz.com "Complete Guide to Internet Publicity" is the bedrock reference book for designing and implementing online publicity campaigns. The book takes a "how-to" approach, with detailed instructions for planning the campaigns, creating the materials needed, launching the campaigns, dealing with any problems, and measuring the results. The instructions are highlighted with anecdotes culled from hundreds of campaigns conducted by the author and other Internet publicity professionals. Chapters include: 1. The Power of Internet Publicity 2. E-Mail News Releases 3. Online News Rooms 4. Discussion Group Postings 5. Newsletters and Direct Marketing 6. Chat Tours 7. Online Seminars and Workshops 8. Web Site Registration and Linkage 9. Contests and Other Fancy Promotions 10. Syndicating Your Promotions 11. Building an Online Publicity Operation "Complete Guide to Internet Publicity" is a goldmine for those people responsible for online publicity operations, whether as managers, professionals, instructors or students, including such professions as marketing, advertising, web site design & construction, e-commerce, direct marketing, and customer service. The book and companion web site both include templates for all the campaign materials described, and time-saving resources to help locate target audiences online. This book is essential to anyone charged with promoting a product, service, company, person, or web site. Order your copy today. __________________________________________________ Copyright ©2004 by Patron Saint Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Please request permission before duplicating or distributing this document. For reprint permission, send mailto:permissions@patronsaintpr.com. Thank you.