Eight Proven Local Content Creation & Marketing Strategies with Case Studies

Recommendations to Plan for Success

From the Co-Founder & Publisher of ILiveInDallas.com

Neil Lemons

Twitter: @Neil_Lemons, @ILiveInDallas

Email: neil@iliveindallas.com

Who is this guy? Co-Founder & Publisher at ILiveInDallas.comHyper-local Arts & Entertainment publication More than 25 writers & averages 45-50k visitors a month (600,000 a year)2011 CBS Local’s Most Valuable Blogger2012 D Magazine’s “Best Dallas (Non-Traditional Media) Blog Nominee (Winner announced in August)

SEO/SEM Manager at PFSweb PFS is a supply chain management company offering: fulfillment, customer service, warehousing & End2End Ecommerce . 300 million dollar public company that makes money on moving products (transactions). SEO, SEM, affiliate strategies & implementation for luxury apparel and consumer packaged goods.

Director at Search and Social Results ™Consult with SMBs on Internet Marketing SEO, SEM, SMM, Blogging & Content Strategies

Notable Past Internet Marketing Clients

Table of Contents

• Early Blogging Beginnings 2001 – 2005

• ILiveInDallas.com + Other Sites Launch in 2008

• Eight Traffic Focused Content Strategies w/ case studies & examples

Blogging Beginnings

Wrote first blog post on 10/29/2001.

Personal Blog Sites from 2001 – 2005handisnack.livejournal.comtangy-seamonkey.livejournal.com

Community Blogs Managed from 2001 – 2005community.livejournal.com/northtx_lj_meetcommunity.livejournal.com/

maple_n_company

Lessons Learned: Own your own domain, have a purpose and end goal or you’ll give up.

General Local Content Strategy for ILiveInDallas.com

• Articles centered around events which have not happened yet (no reviews of past events without leading to the next event).• Strictly Dallas, no Fort Worth, Denton, Arlington or Addison.• Leaning toward non-mainstream subjects & events.• Festivals, Art, Dining, Local Music, Theater, Fundraisers (Advocacy), Tech •Target: People who want to live local, visitors, slightly bohemian less commercialized crowd with an appreciation for art and food.

The ILiveInDallas.com Story

• Started in 2008 by Jennifer Conley over a beer at Frankie’s after I asked where I should take a date in Dallas ( we worked together at local agency LevelTen)• I helped her install WordPress & hosted the site for free. • Two years and 250 posts later, in Jan. 2010, she wanted a co-founder•I wrote two articles which increased traffic over 100% year-over-year. •Recruited more than a dozen guest bloggers. •Record month of 48,000 visitors over 30 days with over 410 articles.

1) Write About What’s In Demand

•Find what’ s “hot” all the time – Evergreen Topics. Example: eHow.com, not TMZ.

•Be very specific

•Use keyword research tools

•SEOBook .com’s Tool: Wordtracker

•Google AdWords keyword tool (take with a grain of salt)

•Popular, but not too popular (KEI, low competition high volume)

•Four – Seven word long target phrase

•Blog about timely events only AFTER you have a large following

Informational Content Opportunity Analysis

*An exercise like this has been performed several times on minor and major scales featuring top 100 – 300 phrases with the base word “Dallas.”

Lessons Learned: Take the time for quality, have a methodology or criteria for your content.

Statistics:

38% of all PageViews over the last 2.5 years (300,000 out of 800,000 pageviews)1040 Facebook Likes & Shares to date54 Retweets to date

Tip: When making a list article, leave the number

out of any list post URL in case it goes viral.

What’s in Demand : A Case Study Goal: Rank for Fun Things to Do in Dallas,

Free Things to Do in Dallas

Key points:

This article took two and a half months to research and write.

This was an Evergreen article which included only things that met three criteria 1) strictly in Dallas, 2) Year-round 3) Under 15 dollars to do

2) Benchmark & Measure Progress “If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.”

“What gets measured improves.”

Six Goals to Have with Every Post1.Search Engine Ranking for a Particular Phrase2.Organic Traffic to that Particular Post3.Social Media Share (Retweets & Facebook Likes)4.Number of Comments5.Backlinks to that Specific Post6.Pins on Pinterest (sent 6% of all traffic last 2/mo)

Tools for Benchmarking, Monitoring & Measuring1.Check Ranking Tools (ShearSeo.com, SEOMoz , SEOBook, Raven) 2.Install & Monitor Google Analytics 3.Check Backlinks (Search Status, Google Webmaster Tools, Open Site Explorer )

Peter Drucker, World Authority & Best Selling Author on Management

3) Make Your Content Authoritative

What’s made blogs like Mashable, TechCrunch, Coppyblogger Authoritative? Right or wrong, the information presented seems to be authoritative, even if they are not always correct.

Eight Ways to Blog with More Authority & Credibility

1.Quote Credible Sources2.Base Your Confidence in the Information Source3.Give Your Audience Solutions4.Write at Least 500 – 1000 (even 2,000) Words5.Link to other reputable sources 6.Ease o f Understanding (More simple, more authority) 7.Sexy Design 8.Add a Short Author Bio at the end of Every Post

Lessons Learned: Start the year before if you want to rank for events the next year, eventually become the authority on all things of that event. Change the year for same festival the next year. Eventually your site becomes the authority.

Statistics: 23 comments Five images with SEO alt text & file namesSix sub-heads reflecting phrase Five resource links to other sitesOne quote from a reputable source

(wikipedia)

Authoritative Content : A Case Study

Goal: Rank for North Texas Irish Festival

Key points:

People search for reviews of events from the year before to decide whether to go or not the current year. Wrote a better article with more information that others in top ten.

4) Place Your Keywords Correctly

In real estate they say the key is location, location, location. Although, this helps a great deal, curb appeal is also a factor.

Six Maximum SEO Power Positions for Your Keyword Targets

1.Title or headline of your post, the closer to the beginning the better.2.In the URL or page name: www.YourSite.com/keyword-phrase3.A couple of times in the first paragraph.4.Every link you create off-site going back to the post (anchor text) - highly important & mostly overlooked. Changed some with Penguin update. 5. Internal links back to your original post. 6.In the individual post tags.

5) Have a Controlled Backlink List

Build your own syndication network of sites going back to the main hub.

What to Consider

1.What are the linking assets you currently control? 2.Is this backlink static /permanent or does it roll off (blog roll vs Twitter link)3.Is this backlink follow or “nofollow” (some say doesn’t matter anymore, but consider it)4.Can you use keyword-rich anchor text in this link?5.Is there relevant content /is the site themed for the backlink?

Supporting Back linking Strategy

•Created unique teaser content on other sites funneling back to the hub•Change the title slightly •Using keyword-rich anchor text in the link •Do this on a variety of static websites you have control over.

Syndicate & Be Syndicated: Content Partners for ILiveInDallas.com

Dallas Foodie

Statistics:

ILIVE has 25 active contributors who have posted at least once in the last year

50/50 on recruiting verses volunteeringOne contributor has posted 12 times,

another has written six times.

Question: What do you think are some of the best ways

to attract awesome guest bloggers?

6) Actively Recruit & Pitch Guest Bloggers

Goal: Recruit different “beat” editors for consistent content in different categories.

Have a constant supply of content to publish and optimize using people power.

Key points:

I always thought about what the guest blogger’s values & wants when making an approach.

The most motivated guest bloggers had their own blog to promote.

Lessons Learned: Users don’t mind promotion as long as they were participants in the article. Get as many different opinions as possible for more opportunity.

Statistics: 40 comments on FB (including mine)15 unique restaurants I could use343 words of free usable content 1,500 visits in 24 hours

7) Crowd Sourcing: A Case Study The article had the opinions of 40 Dallas locals, but only 15 I could use.

Goal: Rank for Best Mexican Food in Dallas

Key points:

I built up a huge Facebook and Twitter following of my intended audience.

I asked an innocuous question and keep probing for responses when unclear. Example: What one thing about so-and-so Mexican restaurant makes it the best?

I tagged everyone who participated on Facebook & Twitter after thanking them after I published the post. They were happy to leave it on their wall because they participated.

Lessons Learned: Make friends with content producers (don’t see them as competitors) & appeal to their self – interest .

Statistics: 6 authors (including me)5,186 words2,472 visits in 36 hours100 Facebook Likes & Shares in 2.25 hours495 Facebook Likes & Shares to date112 Retweets to date

8) Expert Sourcing: A Case Study The article had five sub-articles written by the expert Dallas foodies.

Goal: Rank for Best Dallas Restaurants

Key points:

Each foodie had their own blog, or a reason to want to participate.

It was a fun, subjective, topic in which there could be several valid opinions.

There was a team attitude about the whole thing,

Eight Proven Local Content Creation & Marketing Strategies

1. Benchmark & Measure Your Progress 2. Write About What’s in Demand 3. Make Your Content Authoritative 4. Place Your Keywords Correctly5. Have a Controlled Link List, Syndicate & be

Syndicated

After your website is more established6. Actively Recruit & Pitch Guest Bloggers 7. Crowd Source Content8. Expert Source Content

**Bonus: Four Final Local Content Strategy Tips

1. Foursquare Lists – Create them based on articles w/ branding, backlink for every list (ILiveInDallas.com’s Top Romantic Restaurants in Dallas)

2. Start your email list day one – Create a piece of list bait. 3. Respond to every @ response tweet - Also, CC:

companies & people mentioned in your articles. 4. Email every business after you’ve written about them -

Ask them to add your article to their press page. You can get 10 – 20 backlinks if you mention lots of businesses.

Presentations: SlideShare.net/DallasInternetMarketingTwitter: @Neil_Lemons, @ILiveInDallasPersonal Brand: www.NeilLemons.comEmail: Neil@ILiveInDallas.com