I just got back from Pubcon, and besides the flu I always catch on the plane back from Vegas, there was a ton of information shared and numerous things that I learned. Not only did I enjoy getting to meet, re-connect and share ideas with people from all over, but I have 5 major take-aways that I think stand out for everyone.
1. How to find Bloggers within your niche and who write about your products.
This one is from my slides in my session on How To Grow Your SMB (small business) with PR. One of the tips I gave people is how to find Bloggers who write about your niche as well as your products. What you do is a search on Google for your keyword, company domain or trademark and also search something that you would find on a blog. The search query could be Your trademark + “WordPress”, “Thesis”, “Leave a Comment”, etc… This will pull back huge lists of blogs that are relevant to your topic. There is an advanced search you can do as well to find popular ones as well, but that is for another post.
2. Using Linked-In to target an audience for PR and B2B sales.
One of the things you can do to either get a message to the right people or recruit B2B sales is target the title of the person and the geography around them and the company they work for. Then what you do is create a buzz about your topic, and ads, that can thank the person for their time or draw their attention without pitching them. By selecting sports editor and a specific paper or by choosing HR Recruiter you can display your ads to the companies you are targeting and start them through the sales path or information for your press release.
3. The Affiliate industry has a ton of room to grow.
I had a panel about monetizing your blog and there were numerous attendees there that had never heard of Affiliate Marketing. Others didn’t know how to create a multi-channel advertising or revenue stream for their sites and some of them had upwards of 120K visitors each month. Although that isn’t the biggest site on earth, one of the 120K+ is a mommy blog I had never heard of and is now a new partner. If you think the Affiliate channel is near it’s peak, you are very mistaken. Affiliate Marketing has a ton of room to grow!
4. Don’t discount someone because of their age or the way they look.
During the last couple of Pubcons I talked to some people that were younger than me, older than me, dressed better and dressed worse. The thing that you never know is what that person actually does, what types of sites they have and the connections they can help you make. By assuming that because someone is young or poorly dressed or not well known, so they aren’t worth spending time to talk to, you could be missing out on a huge link partner or Affiliate. The same goes for the people who try to show off and dress super nice and brag.
5. Some superstitions never die.
Years ago everyone posted pictures of themselves with Matt Cutts on their websites to tell Google Bot that they are white hat as a joke and superstition. If you know me then you know I am sort of OCD about certain ones. Fortunately the photo of Matt Cutts being on your website isn’t one of them, but it never hurts to post it anyways. So here is a new photo of me and Matt Cutts.
Besides Affiliate summit and Think Tank, Pubcon is one of my favorite shows of the year and one you should definitely attend. Not only will you learn a ton of information about SEO, Social Media and Affiliate Marketing, but you’ll meet some great people too. Thank you everyone for another great Pubcon.
