Ideas for Business

YouTube has finally surpassed the 1 billion mark on subscribers. If you don’t think that’s significant then you don’t know much about YouTube. The subscriber part I’m talking about are channels.

So what’s a YouTube channel? Good question. And the answer is real simple.

A channel is your individual YouTube account. That’s your channel. And every time another YouTube user subscribes to your channel that’s a feather in your cap. So there are 1 billion total subscribers to channels on YouTube. Big deal, right?

Actually, it is a big deal because there are 16 channels with more than 1 million users each. WebProNews says there are 15, but lists 16.

Now, do you think 1 million subscribers to your channel would be a big deal? You bet it is. That’s clout. I’d say if you’ve got more than 100,000 subscribers then you are doing really well, but to have 1 million, well, that just means you have a lot of power. It means you can sell advertising. Make money. It means you can probably get a movie or a book deal. Make money. Catch my drift?

So how do you make money on YouTube? Get a lot of subscribers to your channel. But how do you that? Produce great videos and promote the heck out of them. You think you can do that with your small business? I think so. You might not get 1 million subscribers, but if you get 100,000 subscribers then that’s pretty good for business. Don’t you think?

Yes, we’re still on a redesign spree with our network websites and this time it’s Freelance Writing Jobs, completely unrecognizable from its old look. It’s lighter and shall we say more writerly—the logotype, hues, textures, and use of manicules all lend to that feeling.

Much of the work went into reorganizing the homepage such that everything is at your fingertips. From the introductory message about FWJ to the equal height boxes and aligned headings (with a little help from jQuery of course), everything is neatly arranged so you don’t get overwhelmed by the information this massive site has to offer. The grid is your friend.

FWJ’s new logo uses the Philosopher web font, which is designed by Jovanny Lemonad and available for embedding through the Google Font Directory. Under the hood, we’ve turned once again to the trusty Genesis Theme Framework.

Check out the new design here!

Matt McGee often has insightful information to present on his blog. Here’s a good example of that.

So in answer to the million dollar question, “Why would anyone “like” your company on Facebook or follow you on Twitter?”, here are the stats that back up my answer:

• 40% want to receive discounts and special promotions
• 36% want a freebie
• 33% want updates on future products
• 30% want updates on upcoming sales
• 25% want access to exclusive content

Now, in order for those answers to be on the list you have to recognize that customers are already a fan of your brand – off line. They like you or they wouldn’t want to get deals from you. Someone claiming they are following you in order to get a discount on your products are essentially saying that they plan to do business with you. They are already planning to spend money with you. The question then is, how much?

Since running your social media campaigns yourself costs less than advertising on local TV, radio, and your newspaper, pass the expense on to your customers in the form of a discount. It’s a guaranteed sale.

Consider it an advertising expense. Offer a coupon good only to your Twitter followers. Or offer a discount code only for your fans on Facebook. Make it for a limited time only so that you get customers into your store before a certain deadline date.

You’ve likely heard of Google Places by now. But have you heard of Google Boost?

Currently, Google Boost is only available in Chicago, San Francisco, and Houston. But it should soon be available everywhere. And you’re going to love it when it is.

Essentially, Google Boost is paid search for local search. In your Boost ad you can put your business name and phone number, address, a description of your business, a snippet from your Google Place page along with the number of reviews you’ve had, and a link to your Google Place page. That actually seems like it’s a little more than an ordinary pay-per-click ad.

With a Googe Boost ad you stand a good chance of getting more traffic to your website. Like traditional PPC, you only pay for the ad when it’s clicked on. Unlike traditional PPC, you’ll be able to order your Google Boost ad directly from Google Places. And, of course, you get analytics with that as well.

The way pricing works for Google Boost is you set yourself a monthly budget then your ads run and when you’ve hit your budget they stop running.

One of the unique features of Google Boost is that your ads will run on Google Maps pages. So if people are performing a local search for your product or service then you stand a good chance of having your ad seen for those more narrow local searches. It’s a great advertising platform for local businesses.

Should you use Google Boost? Well, yes. But right now you can’t – unless you live in Chicago, San Francisco, or Houston. When it rolls out publicly everywhere, you should be one of the first businesses in your local community to try it out.

There is still some discussion in social media marketing arenas as to whether or not StumbleUpon is a useful marketing tool. The pros are that it delivers a lot of traffic. The cons are that traffic typically does not convert well and it bounces at a high rate.

So what’s the conclusion? Is StumbleUpon useful as a marketing tool or not?

Let’s discuss those negatives. If the traffic doesn’t convert well and bounces at a high rate does that mean StumbleUpon is not a very good marketing tool? Shouldn’t you spend your time doing something more productive? Not necessarily. You can benefit from these negatives in other ways.

For instance, the fact that you are getting traffic to your site in the first place means that you have eyeballs in front of your brand. Those eyeballs frequenting your blog and website over and over eventually may find something that catches their eye. It’s a type of top-of-mind awareness. The next time someone who saw your Stumble finds you in a search engine or through another channel they will remember who you were and what you do.

Let’s take that argument deeper with an example. Let’s say you’ve Stumbled every blog post you’ve written for the past year and shared it with your friends. You have a hundred friends or so who have seen at least a third of those Stumbles and may have even thumbed some of them up. Then one day a Stumbler searches for something through Google and finds your website. They recognize your site based on your Stumble relationship and you have instant credibility. Isn’t that a benefit?

You bet it is. And that’s why I say StumbleUpon is still a good marketing tool. Traffic or not, conversions or not, you can still make your brand recognizable and identifiable at a glance. That’s good marketing.