Vote for Your Favorite Promotion Ideas
SEW EXPERTS: PROMOTION & LINK BUILDING By Sage Lewis, Search Engine Watch, Feb 26, 2009
Columns | Contact Sage | Biography
I can't tell you how much fun I'm having writing the new and improved Promotion and Link Building column. It's growing and evolving in interesting, fun ways.
As a group, we've been discussing how best to see this column evolve.
We did a promotion to entice people to offer suggestions as to how this column might look in the future. We looked at all the very clever ways people suggested we mold this column. These people sent me these ideas for a promotion in which I offered a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card for anyone who submitted suggestions. The winner of the gift card was randomly drawn.
Here are the general ideas I received:
- Interview people with successful promotions.
- Track and monitor promotions that were sent in by readers.
- Use Ning as a private social media environment to watch promotions and allow all people to offer their input and opinions of the promotions.
- Offer a $500 scholarship for promotional essay ideas and then promote the scholarship in all the scholarship sites.
- Hold a contest or contests for the best promotions, measured with clear guidelines of what makes a promotion successful.
- Break down the fundamentals of a promotion so other businesses can figure out how to best use the promotion in their case.
- Offer a variety of promotional prizes, such as potential advertising space.
This is where it gets good. As promised (though a bit delayed because I'm like a cat that's easily distracted by something shiny, i.e., call tracking) I'm officially holding another promotion this week.
But it's not just any promotion. It's a two-parter. That means you have two chances to win this week.
The first way you can win is to go vote on which idea you think is the coolest. I've set up a form where you can cast your vote to help shape this column into the absolute best column it can be. You can vote here. Go on. Just do it. You'll be glad you did. You'll be helping shape this column in the future and you'll also be entered for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate. One vote per person and one winner will be selected from all entries. To be eligible, you must vote by Thursday, March 6 at noon Eastern Time.
But wait! There's more.
If you think this idea is cool and you'd like to help raise awareness about it, why don't you link to this article?
I know what you're thinking. "Yeah Sage. This is a pretty cool idea. But do you know how annoying it is to go to all the trouble of linking to an article? I mean, I've got to open my blog posting tool, I've got to open my social bookmarking account. I mean really, Sage. This could take me like two, maybe three minutes. Do you think I have that kind of time?"
I completely understand, dear reader.
That's why, to help inspire you to go to all that trouble, I've set up a second contest just for your effort.
That's right. If you go to the trouble of linking to this article anywhere, I'll enter you into another contest for the chance to win another $25 Amazon gift card.
Say whatever you want about the contest. Tell your readers the idea is awesome. Tell your readers I'm insane. I don't care.
However you link to it, submit where you posted the link here and you'll be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift card.
On top of that, you can link to the article in multiple places. The more times you link to it, the more entries you'll receive into the contest.
The only stipulation is that each link has to be from a unique domain. Multiple links from the same domain, a sub-domain, or a sub-folder will only count as one link.
The last thing I want to discuss is Ning. In case you aren't familiar with the tool, let me tell you a little about it.
Ning is considered a private social network. They allow you to create a social network on any topic you like. The social network you create can be completely open, completely private or somewhere in-between.
Ning has a lot of features. You can create a blog or a forum, and upload pictures and videos.
To get an idea for how they work, check out these Ning communities:
- Burnt Marshmallows -- a camping enthusiast Ning community.
- PickensPlan -- a community that discusses T. Boone Pickens energy ideas.
- AdGabber -- a community that discusses a wide array of advertising and marketing topics
So, if you like the idea, we could use Ning to highlight promotions and discuss them as a group. We'd be able to talk about what we like and don't like, and how to apply these promotions to our own companies.
Now, go forth and vote or link to this article.
You'll be glad you helped out. You'll be helping make this the best promotions column it can be, and you might win an Amazon gift card.
That's like a win, win, win.
Join us for Search Engine Strategies New York March 23-27 at the Hilton New York. The only major search marketing conference and expo on the East Coast, SES New York will be packed with more than 70 sessions, plus more than 150 exhibitors, networking events, parties, and training days.
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Biography
Sage Lewis started his online marketing company, SageRock.com, in 1999 during a time when most Internet companies were failing. SageRock, however, has thrived under Lewis’ direction -- growing an average of 30% every year, while also being recognized as one of the top ten search engine optimization firms in the U.S. by a third-party resource in the industry, Marketing Sherpa.
Regarded as a web marketing expert, Lewis speaks regularly to business organizations like NEOSA and COSE, serves as a resource for press about industry trends, and teaches a recurring class on search engine optimization at Cleveland State University.
Lewis has created a unique company culture that values the individual employee and client, and he has built SageRock around one principle, “The concern, respect and empathy for the individual people we come in contact with at SageRock is our single core value.”
Lewis lives in Akron with his wife, Rocky, and son, Indiana.
Article Archives by Sage Lewis:
» Vote for Your Favorite Promotion Ideas - February 26, 2009
» Solve Your Call Tracking Problems Now! - February 12, 2009
» Bribing People With $50 Gift Cards: Part Deux - January 29, 2009
» Bribing People To Send You Emails With $50 Gift Cards - January 15, 2009
» What Makes a Successful Online Promotion? - January 1, 2009
» Link Building Strategies in Troubled Economic Times - December 18, 2008
» More Articles by Sage Lewis
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