Chocolate purses?

Chocolate purses? Did I read that correctly? Back alley bags?
Terrorism funding with fake couture? Designer purse riots?
They can't be true! But wait, the news is true, it absolutely
is! And what is this? A diamond thief snatches a designer
handbag from a sexy starlet! And then comes a stoUGG Corinth Bootsry about
designer cell phones to carry in that fashionable handbag!
This is what I love about web marketing and my work as a
search engine optimization specialist - the fun and novelty
of research.
Let's take a step back here and clarify. Why would a web site
owner seeking increased search engine visibility care about
news related to their products? In a word, CONTENT. I always
recommend to new clients that they start a blog discussing
their industry and their products and post to it several
times a week. Post what? Anything and everything about their
product or service belongs in their blog. Content is king and
blogs are a great place to routinely add relevant,
interesting, search engine friendly content.
But my clients wonder where I come up with this stuff - It's
in the news.
The day I signed on to increase the search visibility of an
online retailer of designer handbags and fashion accessories,
I went to Google news http://news.google.com and typed
"Designer Handbags" into the search box. As I scrolled down
the page of resulting stories, I saw a link to a press
release discussing the new pink Juicy Couture Sidekick phone
and PDA from T-Mobile. Bingo! First blog entry at the client
blog http://Valuebags.com (recommended to the client that
day) where I recapped the story and posted a photo.
Then I scrolled to the bottom of that Google News page to
look for the link that says, "New! Track new stories about
designer handbags & create an email alert" I clicked the link
under "create an email alert" and entered my email address
for this "Designer Handbags" news search, just like I do with
each new client and their product. Every day I receive a list
of news stories that turned up in a news search for "Designer
Handbags" to discuss on the client blog.
Within a few days I got my daily email alert from Google News
that talked about, I kid you not, Chocolate Designer
Handbags! So I clicked the link in the email to land on a
news story about a high end chocolatier that makes tiny
little replicas of designer purses in rich, flavored
chocolate, complete with tiny bows and straps! There's the
next post to the client designer handbag blog. What fun! But
this can't go on, really - how much news can there be about
trendy, high priced purses?
Next comes an email news alert about sexy starlet Tara Reid,
who was robbed in a Spain airport of her Balenciaga designer
handbag filled with over $180,000 in jewels! The news seems
filled with stories about haute couture bags, but really, can
this continue at this rate? Yes, indeed it can. Next day
brings news of a shop proprietor on the lamb after he is
caught running a fake designer handbag boutique in
Brownsville, Texas. He disappeared after his wife died, on
the run to avoid prison time.
Just incredible, there really can't be more, can there? Yes,
it seemingly never ends, as I got a news alert in the email
the next morning about a RIOT by ravenous customers hungry
for limited numbers of designer handbags on steep UGG Delainediscount at
a Maryland boutique! Police had to stop as many as 1000 women
fighting over the bags when the boutique owner couldn't stop
them from wrecking the store.
There's more! Here's a story about the size of the fake
couture market, currently estimated to be approximately $450
BILLION yearly! That is some sizable change carried by a lot
of fake purses. It is estimated that in New York alone,
losses run $500 million a year to designer knockoffs. This
booty attracts organized crime and it is suspected that
substantial terrorism funding is raised by designer handbag
counterfeiting.
Clearly I've made my point here. If you seek higher search
engine ranking for your products and services and are willing
to post some comments regularly to your company blog on news
in your industry, there are no shortage of topics to discuss.
A headline like "$1.4 Million Designer Handbag Counterfeit
Scam - Four Arrested" doesn't appear every single day does
it? That one ran recently at Boston.com and was in an email
alert.
But what if it's a slow news day and there are no headlines
on your product today to discuss on your blog? OK, it does
happen, especially if you are in the software industry or
industrial supply or if you deal in some other esoteric
minutia. Then what to blog about? Your clients, vendors,
suppliers or customers make for excellent content and in some
cases may happily provide you with their latest news release
to post on your blog. You can detail business or sales trips,
discuss jobs in your industry, or even put up copies of your
own latest email promotions, press releases, or even your
office decorating plans.
Sale promotions, coupon codes, and specials for blog readers
only - all contribute to a popular and visible blog in your
industry. If you post often, use keyword phrases liberally in
your text and hyperlink that keyword text to relevant
information or sales pages of your products from the blog,
you will increase the search engine ranking of your main site
over time.
As a male with little interest in designer purses and
handbags, I knew I could effectively market this client
simply by signing up for "Designer Handbags" Google News
alerts and gathering those news headlines and commenting on
the client blog. I never thought that omega watches, Prada, Hermes,
Vuitton, Furla, Fendi and Ferragamo handbags UGG Elsey Bootswould become an
item of interest to me - and they're still not - so Google
News alerts comes to the rescue.
Clients however, often find that they become extremely
interested in those news alerts, have no trouble commenting
about them on their blog, and soon come to enjoy the process
and happily take it on as a regular task in their web
marketing. They are already experts on their product and
hearing more about their industry in daily news stories and
commenting about it in their blog becomes a pleasant daily
task.
Did you know you could buy designer handbags at Walmart's
Sam's Club stores? "Regional Manager Matt Lindsey said "They
don't come into Sam's Club looking for affordable luxuries,
but once they see it and they can afford it, they're happy
with it." Coach, Prada, Kate Spade, and Fendi handbags are
available in (Sam's Club) stores."
From Rochester, NY TV news station WHAM channel 13 web site.
Truth is stranger than fiction. You couldn't make this stuff up!
Copyright Mike Banks Valentine © December 2005