{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} I hope you have had a good week. Life has been hectic here as I am busy putting the finishing touches to the Annual Convention of the Professional Speaking Association, being held at the start of October. I take over as President then, and not only do I have to help organise this year's event, I also have to plan the 2011 meeting as well....! No doubt I shall be chatting about this over coffee when I meet up with the rest of The Social Media Guys on Tuesday 14th September in Hungerford. If you want to join us for coffee and to discover more about how to use social media in your business, simply pop along to The Bear Hotel and you'll find us in the bar at 11am. More details at The Social Media Guys.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: How do I get people to return to my website? Your website only really works well if you get people to return. Otherwise you are like a shop that gets people to walk in once, never to come through the doors again. If you think of that analogy you can see that shops only appeal if they do two things - they provide stuff you want and they keep re-stocking with new, attractive things. Similarly, your website will get repeat visitors if it does those two things. Firstly provide something which is wanted by your target audience and then add new material, constantly, just like a shop. One really effective way of ensuring you get repeat visitors is to provide "cornerstone content". This is rock-sold material that is so valuable people keep on wanting it. For instance, you could produce an article which shows the "ten steps" to achieving a certain thing in your sector. Or you could have a video which demonstrates a particular skill. Alternatively, a list of essential links and websites which people need to do a certain task can also be a "cornerstone" item. In other words, produce something - or a few of them - which people ALWAYS want. My website, for instance, has an article on choosing the best blogging software. It is one of the most popular items on my website because it is "cornerstone" - it is a question which is constantly being asked by people. So much so, that my article is No 3 on Google out of 6.65m entries on the subject...! However, having "cornerstone" items on your website is only half the battle in getting people to revisit. That's a bit like a shop having a single product you want to buy - but you never return because that's all they offer you. Instead, you only revisit that shop if they re-stock with new items and show you they have these new things on offer. So, on your website you need to do much the same. Add new content and then show this off to your visitors - either by promoting it on the front page of your website or by announcing it in emails and other promotional ways. In other words, you need to constantly produce new "stuff" for your website AND you need to promote it. Otherwise, you are unlikely to get as many return visitors as you would like. Remember, you can always ask your question and get it answered in this newsletter by going to: http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/questions
WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: You are full of ideas Twice this week I have been in meetings where someone said something and everyone else in the room went: "oh my goodness, that's brilliant." Yet the people involved in producing the "brilliant idea" both admitted that this was something that they had "just come out with". There was no planning, no prior thought, no analysis; it was just a spontaneous suggestion. In one case, this spontaneous suggestion looks like it could be worth millions....! The Dragons on the BBC will be desperate for even a tiny percentage, I reckon. Yet, it wasn't a planned, organised idea. The other suggestion was merely looking at a problem from a completely different direction. Everyone else in the room was focused on trying to solve the issue, when someone said "how about we look at it like this?". And, once again, it was not planned, it was just something that popped into their head. Here's the thing - ideas pop into our heads all the time. But we need the social stimulation of others around us to get them out of our heads and into the open. What this really means is that we can all come up with suggestions, ideas and brilliant notions to improve our businesses. But those ideas whither and die unless we make them public - and the only way to do that is to be with other people. Getting together with people in meetings or business networking events is often a great way of producing spontaneous ideas for your business. Stay in your office and imprison yourself by your PC and your idea production system will go into hibernation. If you want to check out what else I've been doing for the past week, you can always look at: http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/week
THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY": Another item you don't have to pay for...!
You can download the book at http://GJurl.com/seobook So, that's it for this week - see you in seven days...! Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web: grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
