It's Official: Google Indexes Comments

A few years ago, I had an on-blog conversation with Bob Bly on the idea of marketing with blog comments. Bob was skeptical, but I had done it together with Steve O'Keefe.

Now it's official. Mequoda Daily reports that Google is indexing comments on blogs and Facebook posts. So add comments to your toolbox. And remember--Google is watching. So if you don't have something good to say, keep your comments to yourself.

Read the full story: Google Starts Indexing Comments – All of Them

Advanced Internet Publicity session a Top Seller

In cased you missed it, or just want to hear it again, PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association has released recordings of the 2007 PMA University sessions. I was especially gratified see that the session in which I participated with Steve O'Keefe of Patron Saint Productions and Penny Sansevieri of Author Marketing Experts was one of the best sellers. The session focused on advanced PR techniques, through author tours and blogging.

The recordings, available through AVMG Media Store listed our session as

***TOP SELLER*** 4A. Advanced Internet Publicity: Online Author Tours

Let me know if you order the CD and have any questions. I'm working on a guide to Blog PR and would appreciate your feedback. Disclosure: I don't get any commission from sales of the CD. Just a nice warm feeling.

Steve O'Keefe Rides Again

After a brief hiatus, Steve O'Keefe returns to IAOCblog with a FREE Internet Public Relations Class!

You heard it right. This is the real thing--not some hype-filled webinar or overpriced resort cum lecture. It's a full 10-week class in Internet Public Relations conducted through IAOCblog.com and Skype Public Chat. And it's starting Feb. 1.

Sharpen your pencils and go to IAOCblog.com now for the details.

Murder Your Darlings

Steve O'Keefe and I were preparing some handouts for our panel discussion on blog PR tomorrow at PMA University.

One of my blog posts got left out. One of my favorites. Then I thought about it and remembered the old advice to writers: "Murder your darlings."

Being a research junkie, I quickly turned up the source: Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch wrote it in 1916:

Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.

Do yourself a favor. Read the entire essay: On Style. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur. 1916. On the Art of Writing

Great advice for copywriters, bloggers... or whoever wants their writing to be read.... and acted upon!

PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association - University

I will be joining Steve O'Keefe next month at PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association - University

I'll be focusing on Blog PR for books: especially my blog campaign with Steve for Alan Dershowitz's book The Case for Peace.

Call for Top SEO Resources

Steve O'Keefe asks to Post Your Picks for Top Search Engine Optimization Resources, And the discussion is heating up.

To SEO or not to SEO, is that the question? Is SEO incompatible with good copywriting? What do you think? Join in the discussion at IAOCblog.com

Best Internet PR Resources?

Steve O'Keefe--patron saint of online public relations--is calling for a brainstorming session at: Your Picks for The Best Internet PR Resources?

Join in the discussion. Send in your favorite article, tool, or website... or anything else you think is useful for Internet PR professionals. And no, you're not limited to one item. The more the merrier. It's all happening at the blog of the International Association of Online Communicators (IAOCblog.com)

The greatest direct mail letter of all time?

Thanks to Steve O'Keefe for sending me this.

I've mentioned the brilliant positioning of the Wall St. Journal in their promotions, especially their direct mail letter that sold subscriptions for some 30 years before it finally gave way to a revision by Mal Decker.

Ken McCarthy reports that the creator of the Wall St. Journal letter, copywriter Martin Conroy, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 84:

Martin Conroy: Did he write the greatest direct mail letter of all time?

This Week on IAOCblog.com

Looks like I'm going to be playing Tonto to Steve O'Keefe's Lone Ranger at the blog of The International Association of Online Communicators (IAOC). (See Steve's post about it at the IAOCblog.)

"This Week on IAOCblog.com" features blog discussions about online communications, marketing, PR, blogging, RSS technology, online video promotion and more. Come join in.

Adios, Kemo Sabe.

Blog PR--With or Without a Blog

Whether or not you have your own blog, you can still use blogs to promote your business.

A case in point: I recently ran a blog PR campaign in association with Steve O'Keefe for Wiley Publishing, to promote Alan Dershowitz's new book The Case for Peace.

I contacted 34 Jewish-interest blogs (plus two sites that I thought were mission-critical even though they aren't blogs). For each blog, I commented on a relevant post. Where I thought it was inappropriate--or potentially incendiary--to intrude with a comment, I sent a pitch letter to the blogmaster offering a free review copy. Most of the blogmasters wrote asking for copies. And (thank Heaven) no flames!

You can see some of the results if you Google "dershowitz peace mordechai schiller".

More on the P.S. in Email Marketing

I'm giving up on cutesy post entry titles. Ed Nash used to call it the "curse of cleverness." Now back to business!

Larry Chase, publisher of Web Digest For Marketers, followed up with this observation:

Hi Morty,

In solo emails I have found the Johnson box to be very effective, maybe because so many people view their emails in Preview Pane in this "give-it-to-me-quick" medium. My guess is the PS works better in print because readers don't have to scroll all the way down a printed page since they can just give the whole communique the one-over-light as they drop down to that PS. Still, the online PS seems to have its share of clicks. Maybe that's because of the reader who is absorbing the email message from top to bottom.

An interesting test would be to see which clicks convert to sale. My bet is the clicks from the PS are more likely to buy something.

So now there's a new variable in the test. Not only what gets more eyeballs or clicks, but which clicks actually result in more sales!

Stay tuned.

PS: In case you missed it, see Steve O'Keefe's comment on spam, subject lines and a quest for "irresistible words."

P.S., I Love You

I sent an email to Steve O'Keefe and, out of direct mail copywriter habit, I saved a main point for the closing "P.S."

Then I added (in a P.P.S.!) that to DM copywriters, the P.S. is the second most important part of a letter. (I even added a P.P.P.S.! But my spell checker balked at that one.)

Steve wrote back, raising an interesting question:

The problem with P.S.'s is that they don't work as well in email as they do in snail mail. Due to "quoting" and "signatures" most folks stop reading when they see the sig. A fascinating study would be into subject lines. Email, voicemail, newsreaders, blogs... the science of headlines has never been so important.

I started to look for an answer and went right to the books: The Online Copywriter's Handbook : Everything You Need to Know to Write Electronic Copy That Sells, by Bob Bly
and Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy, by Nick Usborne

Bob Bly didn't seem to discuss the question, except to include "P.S." in a list of "mechanical techniques you can use to call attention to key words and phrases online." Nick Usborne mentioned the technique in connection with that trusty old tool, the "Johnson Box," adding that its inventor--copywriting pioneer Frank Johnson--"was also the first person to take the P.S. on a direct-mail letter seriously" because readers often read the P.S. first. "So he started writing the P.S. as if it were a headline. And so has everyone else ever since."

Ivan Levinson writes gives tips on using a Johnson Box in emails including a suggestion to:

Use a box at the top of a seminar or Webinar invitation. The top of the letter or e-mail is the perfect place for a box that tells the reader What/When/Where/Why they should attend.

The only reported test results I found came from online strategist Larry Chase who says,

Use a P.S.: After the salutation, the P.S. is typically the most read element of a sales letter. I notice the most amount of clicks from the Johnson box at the top of the sales letter, and the line in the P.S. at the bottom. The P.S. usually restates the entire offer and maybe throws in some added incentive to take action now.

Have you used a P.S. or Johnson Box in your email marketing? Would you like to share your results?

Thanks!
Morty

P.S.: You can email me or comment below.
P.P.S. Thanks to Lee Marc Stein for the title.

Is Advertising Dishonest?

Steve O'Keefe, dean of online PR, had an interesting reaction to my post on "Schwartz's Law of Advertising."

Steve wrote:

With marketing, I increasingly believe the key is to be genuine; that is, it is more important to tell the truth than to increase sales. If sales happen, that's great, because marketing needs funding. But if sales don't happen, that's okay too -- as long as you told the truth. It is better to be honestly rejected than accepted due to false pretense.

Is strategic advertising--relating your product to the needs of the customer--inherently dishonest? Is it dishonest to position a product or a person as the solution to someone's problem?

Should all advertising be like the old parody ads in Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion? Remember those?

"Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery.... If you can't get it at Ralph's you can probably get along without it!"

Am I just being defensive?

Bob Bly took out after Madison Ave. on his blog. Are direct marketers and online marketers more ethical? Or just more effective?

Katrina Update--Needed NOW: Neosporin, Batteries, Pre-Paid Cell Phones

Just a follow-up on my last post--Hurricane Katrina What Is Your Company Doing To Help--Steve O'Keefe reports:

I am now campaigning to get Neosporin, batteries, and pre-paid cell phones into the area. Besides water and law & order, these items were most requested by people tending to the remaining refugees. Let's see what we can do!

Seattle Times is now reporting that they have more than enough water (thank God) and diapers. They need batteries and cell phones now.

For updates from the front, check in regularly on Steve's blog.

And keep praying!

Hurricane Katrina: What Is Your Company Doing To Help?

Steve O'Keefe, Internet publicist and author, is now a self-described "refugee from New Orleans." Steve is now holed out with his staff in Nashville, TN waiting for.... what? Some miracle I guess.

In the meantime, Steve and Don Bates of Media Distribution Services have been in contact with the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) to try to intensify and speed up their efforts to get bottled water to victims of Hurricane Katrina who are literally dying of thirst in New Orleans.

The IBWA said in a news release:

BOTTLED WATER INDUSTRY PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO HURRICANE STRICKEN REGION Millions of Bottles Donated to Hurricane Katrina Victims

Statement of IBWA President Joseph K. Doss:

"The bottled water industry has been hard at work since the first Hurricane Katrina alerts were issued to provide assistance to those in need. Many IBWA members have depleted existing inventories and are now bottling water around the clock to help meet the demand for clean, safe drinking water. They have trucks either on-site or heading to the region with millions and millions of bottled water servings in 16-ounce, 2.5 gallon and five gallon sizes.

"The bottled water industry is proud to assist in providing needed drinking water relief to affected areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. We in a unique position of manufacturing a product necessary for human survival; and we are doing everything in our power to get donated bottled water to where it is needed most.

"At this point, we and other industries who supply relief and recovery supplies are finding that federal and state agencies cannot give specific information as to where bottled water and items should be delivered, who to contact, etc. IBWA has raised this issue directly with an official at the Department of Homeland Security, who acknowledged that there are logistical problems and assured us that steps would be taken to correct this situation. Bottled water industry transports are faced with the same challenges of damaged infrastructure and limited access to affected areas as others involved in relief efforts.

"Bottled water companies have been, and continue to be, aggressive in our efforts to get bottled water to communities in need. In case after case, bottled water deliveries are being coordinated by IBWA members and staff directly with local officials and citizens in affected areas, circumventing challenges encountered by the bottled water industry when working through formal channels.

"Members of the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) are reporting that more than four million (4,000,000) containers of bottled water are either en route or arrived at the devastated region. With supply efforts certain to continue into the foreseeable future, the bottled water industry without question-without hesitation-is proud to do our part to relieve the suffering of our fellow Americans."

Do you or your company have any goods or services that could help? If yes, please post a comment at Steve's blog.

And please pray for that miracle!

To blog or not to blog... Is that the question?

Comment from Steve O'Keefe

It's not every day you get challenged by a reigning champ. So, even though I'm outclassed here, I feel honor bound to answer the comment to my blog from Steve O'Keefe, Author of "Complete Guide to Internet Publicity" and VP, International Association of Online Communicators.

Rather than answer in the comment section, I'm afraid I turned this blog into a mobius strip by linking to a comment on my own first posting. So please bear with me. The gist of O'Keefe's comment to my blog (read comment here) is that blogs are passing fad and not worth all the fuss.

O'Keefe says:
Why are blogs doomed?
1. Blog Spam
2. Time Commitments
3. Low Signal to Noise Ratio

So why am I bothering to learn to blog? The most obvious answer is the "be-there-or-be-square" syndrome. As a writer... as a copywriter and marketing consultant... I have to be up on the tools of my trade. Yes, a lot of blogs are glorified teenagers' diaries with more "noise" than "signal." But there are growing numbers of useful marketing and writing blogs. Yes, they're ephemeral. But so is today's Wall St. Journal.

A lot of people debate what's better, a newsletter or a blog. But that's like asking which screwdriver is better, flat tip or Phillips? Any good toolbox needs both.

Spam isn't kosher in email or blogs. Many bloggists (is that a word? I use it to mean partisan bloggers) say email is dead. Granted, spam and viruses have made email marketing a minefield. But I still write ezine newsletters. Both ezines and blogs have their advantages and disadvantages. I've been neglecting both of mine for lack of time. But it's a lot faster to add a blog post than write a whole newsletter.

My own blog is still an experiment, so it's not a good case in point. But my client, Gil Student of Yashar Books, has a personal blog that is read--and often quoted--by a tightly knit group. That "hive" forms the active core of our target market. They are the (choose your own metaphor): Powerful Sneezers; Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen; Network Hubs... that spread the word-of-mouth to others. And word-of-mouth is what we need.

So, I'll continue to blog. And I'll continue to follow the advice in "Complete Guide to Internet Publicity" along with the rest of the tools in my kit. And I'll look forward to reading each issue of O'Keefe's newsletter... and his blog!

Morty