Written by Lesa Seibert | 03 May 2012
Posted in Internet Marketing Tip of the Week

PayPal has put themselves in an enviable position on the web as of late with a 22% increase in revenues in the last year.  With mobile payments on the verge of erupting into a multi-billion dollar industry in the next few years, analysts are predicting that PayPal's revenues will overtake those of eBay's Marketplace by 2014.

What make it even better is that PayPal is a very accessible partner to any online business.  PayPal recently announced some new procuts that are exciting web professionals:

• PayPal for Digital Products - this is a micropayments solution that lets consumers pay for digital goods such as games, music and videos in as little a two clicks without ever leaving the publishers site.  This new solution will be integrated into Facebook to make PayPal the social network's new digital goods payment method, offering users the safest, fastest and most cost-effective solution for sending and receiving micropayments of under $12. 
• Mobile Payments Library - A new functionality targeting subscription businesses that will enable pre-approved, chain and split mobile payments to be process through PayPal accounts.
• PayPal Here - A mobile app that allows you to accept credit and debit cards, PayPal and checks anywhere you do business.
• PayPal Fundraising Tools - PayPal offers multiple fundraising tools to make it easy to collect donations for your favorite cause(s).

Written by Lesa Seibert | 26 December 2011
Posted in Internet Marketing Tip of the Week

You can use Applications on LinkedIn to enhance your profile.  Some of the most popular ones are to pull in your blog feed or Twitter stream, a list of your favorite books, recent presentations, community/charitable involvement and much more.  Adding these features keeps your profile fresh and interesting along with being full of information that sets you up as a leader in your industry.  The nice thing is with the blog and Twitter feeds, they update automatically, so once you set them they take care of themselves.

So now you have your LinkedIn profile optimized but how do you know it's working?  Here are some performance indicators to look for:

1. Is your profile 100 percent complete (look at the top right side of your Profile page to find this status)?  If not, keep working until it is complete then keep going.
2. When typing your keyword phrase selected from your optimized profile, does your profile appear in search results?
3. Are you getting an increase in recommendations?  Keep soliciting recommendations from current and new clients.  In time, you will receive a notice of an unsolicited recommendation in your inbox.  That is a nice feeling.
4. You should see an increase in personal messages in your LinkedIn Inbox.  The more conversations you create, the more people will want to connect with you.
5. Watch for your profile in the search engines.  If you choose the right keyword that is not too highly competitive, you will show up quickly.

Feel free to check out my profile on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/lesaseibert and see how mine is optimized.  Good luck in increasing your visibility and connections on LinkedIn.

Written by Lesa Seibert | 26 December 2011
Posted in Internet Marketing Tip of the Week

When setting up a LinkedIn profile, there are mutliple things to consider to ensure your profile is optimized.  First, you need to decide what keywords you want to be found under.  To help you in this process, think about what prospective clients would search for to find you and put that in your Professional Headline on your profile. 

Next, you need to optimize the main parts of your profile as follows:

1. Profile Photo - make sure to use a professional headshot in your profile photo.  People want to see your face, not a logo or a blank image.
2. Last Name - Your name is your headline, so try to include a keyword.  To do this, keep your first name as it is - mine is Lesa.  For your last name field, include a keyword or keyprhase.  Mine is "Seibert - Web Designer/Marketing Speaker".  By doing this you are findable under your name and your expertise.
3. Keywords - Keywords optimization techniques apply to LinkedIn as well.  Make sure you include keywords throughout your profile, including your professional experience, specialties, job description and company title.  Don't spam with keywords, but include them where they fit. 
4. Website Links - Make sure to put your company or blog name in for your website and not use My Website.  To do this, when you are setting the link(s) to your website(s), DO NOT select and of the pre-defined options (Company Website, Blog, etc.) as that is what they put for the title.  Instead, select Other at the bottom of the list and put in your own link title (Website & Software Design, Social Media Marketing, etc.) and then the link to that site. 
5. Recommendations - Make sure to get recommendations.  When you reach out to clients or colleagues,  ask them to use specific keywords in their recommendation (ex. website design, graphic design, etc.).  Make sure to give recommendations to people you support.

Written by Lesa Seibert | 26 December 2011
Posted in Internet Marketing Tip of the Week

The free LinkedIn account will allow you to join up to 50 Groups.  In LinkedIN Groups, you can network, join conversations, and show prospects that you have the solutions to their problems.  Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs do not utilize Groups to reach prospective clients.

When most people join Groups they often make these two common mistakes:

1. They join the group but never participate.  You can't expect prospects to come to you for a solution when you don't take the time to make yourself heard.
2. They join groups where there are similar members.  Does it make more sense to join a group that is full of your competition or full of prospective clients?  You should be in the same place as your prospects, sharing your knowledge of your industry so they can see you are a useful resource.  

To take the most advantage of Groups, create a group for your company and post all of your articles/discussions there.  This creates a community of followers for your company.  Then using the LinkedIn share tool, share that article with all of your other Groups with one click.  To explain the power of groups, I belong to 32 Groups that I post in regularly.  Those 32 Groups contain over 188,000 members.  If you figure that some Groups have some of the same members, you can easily say that you are reaching at least 130,000+ people every time you make a post to these groups.  You do the math - in a few minutes you can post content that will be read by over 130,000 people either daily or weekly (depending on how often they get group updates).  When I started this for our company, our site traffic went up 1200% in 4 weeks, because my posts were links to our company blog, which drove the readers back to our company website.

LinkedIn can be a powerful marketing & networking tool if you use it properly.

Written by Lesa Seibert | 14 July 2011
Posted in Internet Marketing Tip of the Week

by, Lesa Seibert, President, Xstreme Media

As we said last week, LinkedIn is not talked about as much when it comes to Internet Marketing, but it is a powerful tool you should not over look.  This week we will look at how to engage with others on LinkedIn.

So you want a prospect to do business with you.  What do you do?  Well, you need to prove that you are worthy.  The best way to do this is to get prospects engaged and show them that you are a leader in your industry.  So how do you engage with them?

1. Update your status daily, but not that you are eating tacos or going to play golf.  Put informative content that can help your prospects.  Show them solutions for their problems.
2. Regularly provide tips, tools, resources, video and articles and distribute them through your LinkedIn network, including the groups you belong to.
3. Start debates within LinkedIn groups.  For example, a client posted "Is Article Marketing just an SEO link-building tool?"  By starting discussions like this, he has gained proof form those who support his ideas.  For those who do not, it has provided a great discussion panel where he can show off his expertise and even display case studies.
4. Answer questions on the Q&A board and within different groups.  This will demonstrate your experience and help you become an established expert.
5. If you do seminars, webinars, teleseminars in your industry, make sure to add them to LinkedIn events, if they are open to the public.  This will again establish you as an expert in your field.  You can also post sneak preview articles of what you will be speaking on, encouraging people that want the "rest of the story", to register for the event.
6. Make sure your profile is complete.  Do polls, insert your blog feed, post presentations, etc.  Using the new publications application you can post e-books, articles and other publications.

Next week we will look at LinkedIn Groups.