Archer Web Solutions - Hit the target every time!

It's 3:42 AM, Christmas morning, and even though it is the case that I am Jewish and do not celebrate this particular holiday in a religious sense, I come from a family that does, and therefore this time has it's own nostalgic sacredness to me. It's been storming all night long, and I've been in the living room in my pajamas catching up on tasks for work.

When you own your own business, it's hard to let go and give yourself the vacation that you give your employees, or even expected and took for granted when you yourself were an employee, but the truth is, in the quiet time created by a lack of external pressures and client attention, the entrepreneurial mind wakes up and starts to tackle the creative tasks and administrative menialities both that one never seems to have the time to handle in the day to day. The truth is, these days those that run a small business are running with a tight belt and are overworked, and it's only in the quiet moments that the pressure seems to decrease enough to let the mind wake up and remind us why we went into business in the first place. 

For me, what is percolating in the noggin, other than the bills I have to pay and the payroll I have to make sure gets out, and the fact that I'm taking a short (sorta) vacation next week at the beach with family, is how I should make sure to get a post in for Christmas, because there are lots of queries on Christmas, and it's a good time to try to pick up some relevance in traffic. Sound mercenary? Well, perhaps it is, but the truth is, if people are reading my post, then I guess I'm relevant to them, and however I get in front of their eyeballs is just fine with me. 

About a month ago, I was listening to an interview off of the Mixergy blog (an absolutely fantastic video and audio blog, and if you haven't ever visited, you MUST go and check out Andrew Warner's awesome blog) and Andrew was talking about an interview he gave a while back with Michael Dorausch of Planet Chiropractic, and in particular, how Michael singlehandedly turned his web site into a traffic generating powerhouse.

 Michael had a few key points to pay attention to, in his advice in generating traffic that relate to trying to predict queries that will be happening, and to write some specific content to that query, and in the process, tie it to the core business of your site. Here are some crib notes, but seriously - download the interview and listen to it in its entirety. You won't be sorry.

1. Write on topical / news-related,  predictable events (such as Christmas)
2. Write for others in return for links back to your site.
3. Write about others and link to their sites. This breeds good will, and they're more likely to write nice things about you.
4. Create link bait (using video, etc. if you can)
5. Create interviews with others (using audio, video, text. etc.)
6. Create and make use of channels on YouTube, Flickr, Digg, etc. with branding and URL links back to your site.
7. Try to work with celebrities or large events if you can - he reports on a 'Van Halen' concert that he wrote about, and tied the concert into his industry in a very ingenious way. Speak to the popular concerns, but in the end, tie it to your business.
8. Always check Google searches, find the hot queries, and write about those items. Build in links to other content. Give good information and provide great content. At the end of these pieces, link back to your own business concerns.

There is a lot in this interview, and the basic message is - if you are creative, you can write about what is hot in the query searches, but still be authentic and relevant, and tie it back into your own industry.

As for me, I've done my Christmas post, and consider this your gift from St. Archer, or Joshua Claus.  Just know that I am *not* climbing back up your chimney, so I'll slip out the back and only take one of Santa's cookies for my trouble. It's now 4:10 AM and I'll have children up in the morning, so it's off for a few hours of shut-eye. 

Happy Holidays from Archer Web Solutions!

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