For those of you who don’t know, I’m an on again-off again online dater. I work a lot at home… not into the club scene… don’t do blind dates… yadda, yadda, yadda. It’s a diversion for me – now.
But when I first started doing it, I was really into finding “the one.” My sister had just gotten re-married (le sigh), my ex-was on his way to the altar (ciao!) and I just felt like I wanted to be in the hand holding club too. I put on my very best law of attraction demeanor and went on an official soul mate quest.
Yes, I met someone great and we dated for a while. But the truth is that he was great for someone else, not for me. I’m a talkative foodie who loves to try new things. He loved to try new things, but wasn’t very talkative nor was he a foodie.
At the end of that spell, I came to a simple conclusion.
Sometimes you either have to alter your expectations or you have to move on. In that situation I chose to move on.
Expectations can you have barking up the wrong tree when you should be running down the mountain
Yesterday I noticed I was getting some traffic from the Warrior Forum so I stopped in for a brief visit. Apparently one of my readers had mentioned me as a press release writer. A good press release writer.
I popped over to say thanks and to explain how my service worked.
The person looking for a press release writer had previously hired someone else on the Warrior Forum. He wasn’t all that ecstatic about the work provided and was on the prowl again for someone new.
I explained that I write press releases for people who are looking for website traffic through Google News and other assorted websites. I don’t write them to catch the attention of an editor at The Wall Street Journal.
I relayed that if the person wanted true media attention they should ditch the press release strategy, build a list of journalists who covered his type of story and pitch them individually. That’s the most efficient way to get right to the source… and it works way better than sending out a press releases.
This is, in fact, what a lot of super expensive PR companies do. If they have a really good story, they don’t let a press release do the job of a well-tailored pitch. If I want bloggers to review a product, I don’t send out a press release, I email them personally.
Are your expectations leading you down the wrong path?
When I write press releases, it’s for traffic. Not for backlinks. Not for media attention. I want some honest-to-goodness click throughs. I want ebook sales. I want subscribers.
Do I get the backlink effect? Yes. As I relayed in the Warrior post, I have an affiliate marketing client I did 8 press releases for – 2 for each of his sites.
When the dust cleared, 2 of those sites had gained significant backlink juice from the press releases. Enough where they jumped to the first page in Google and in some cases to a top 3 position for a fairly competitive term. So indeed, press releases can be used for backlink power.
But to me, backlinks are a beneficial by-product of the release, not the main reason why I write them. I don’t find them to be as reliable for backlinks as I do for actual traffic. Resource and broken link building are the more effective ways to earn links, rather than trying to build them. Of-course, you need great resources, great content. Remember, when you do it at the optimal way, you’ll see following kind of inbound link graph (This is for Digital Renovators website, Halifax Website Design team):
I made it a point to stress these things when I wrote the sales copy at my new press release website. I wanted to avoid clients feeling like their expectations for backlinks or media attention weren’t met.
And that’s the purpose of today’s post.
Expectations in internet marketing often have a serious disconnect from the truth
In internet marketing, it seems like every tactic is usable for at least 2-3 different purposes. Take forums, for instance.
You can do research on them. You can ask and answer questions. Include your signature and you’ve turned your posts into an advertisement. You can get 1,000 forum profile links in hopes of spiking your backlink juice.
Yes, forums are used for several different purposes. But if you’re using them for marketing purposes, they usually work the best when:
(a) You participate on them, by helpfully answering other people’s questions;
(b) You include a signature.
Everything else (research, backlinks) is a beneficial by-product.
So when I see people get disappointed because they don’t get the positive backlink effect from forum profile links, I cringe a little. Their expectations are off kilter. Forum profiles can be used for backlinks. But that’s really not their intended purpose. If you use them for that purpose then you really can’t be disappointed when it doesn’t work out as planned.
No more than I can be disappointed in a guy who’s nice, but not a talkative foodie like me.
Understand the true purpose of the tools/services you’re using. If you’re using a tool for a secondary benefit, plan for the best possible results, but don’t expect miracles.
It’s a harsh, yet a very reliable metric for expectation joy in this business.
Written by Dahlia, blogger and eBook author.
