Lisa’s Virtual Ramblings

I was never one to be all gushy around the holiday season and this blog post will not be a gushy, thankful for load of garbage because that is not who I am so why would I write one? For many years, at a younger age, I had the typical Jersey mouth on me. Curses would be flying, no regard to others around me and so forth. Then I started to grow up and realize that not everyone needs to hear my conversations or be caught in my line of nasty mouth. Occassionally it does come back and peaks its head into my life, especially when I get angry but, oh yea the holiday…

This year my husband and I welcomed a baby girl into our lives. If you do not know the entire story, I am sure you can find it somewhere on this blog or my corporate blog here. The sappy side of me, WARNING, is I am thankful for our daughter and that she has allowed us to be a family.

This year, 2009, has been a very difficult one. We decided to move back east to be closer to family and we moved with a 3 week old! Talk about stress but our daughter was amazing! Ok yes, she slept most of the drive but it all worked out so who the fuck cares, you don’t need to hear the week long ordeal of traveling from Arizona to Florida! (ok i still curse…) Unless you want to and I can relive the experience of two SUV’s being driven across the country, 2 dogs, a U-haul, MIL, 3 week old baby to a home I never saw in person…

Anyhoo, my business was going strong and didn’t get overly hit by the troubling economic times. We were on track to even make more money than 2008 and then shit happened. I have no idea what exactly happened but everything got quiet. Then while this downfall was occuring, in March my back decided it was time to knot itself and not loosen till June. Feeling almost normal I decided to be the world traveler to present out at a conference about Online Marketing in San Fran. 5 days later I returned home in extreme pain and with 2 herniated discs. (Delray Beach ER doctor was a huge McDouchey questioning me why I was there and shit; WTF I couldn’t walk! That is why I went to the ER…)

(WTG LISA! Nice job on the back and totally destroying your back health!)

So now that it is 6 months later and I have been fairly quiet throughout the online world, I am attempting to make my return. This time with much less back pain and not planning a trip for a while to make sure my lovely discs will not recreate another 2009 horrid experience of pain, crying and pain killers; where did the time go, what the fuck happened to me, and this year!

While I will be taking off during the slowness of the holiday, it will also give me the much needed time to finally enjoy our new home and location. The dreams of moving 2 minutes from the beach quickly died when I could barely walk for 8.5 months, couldn’t hold my baby or even sleep due to the pain I experienced this year.

Though I wasn’t very vocal in the social networks, I was still online reviewing and reading what was happening. From former supposed “friends” creating companies from ideas we discussed of pursuing together to seeing many people also make cross country moves for a job or a better life to the Internet Marketers who continue to do well and claim the economy hasn’t hurt them; yes 2009 has been a very interesting year through my eyes.

From the freelancer’s point of view, it seems some continue to maintain and do well while others, many who I somehow connected with, seen a drop in business. From canceled contracts and the biggest issue of all which is the theme of 2009, Clients NOT paying!

So as I take time to enjoy the last 2 weeks of 2009 with my family, I will also be deciding if continuing with PearlyWrites is viable, if I continue with PearlyWrites, would I be interested in finding other parties or partners and relaunching or just look at my business as it was nice while it lasted, I learned a lot being a small business owner, about the dishonesty of the business world and continue on my way to bigger, brighter and better things.

Wishing everyone a nice holiday, a better new year and less stress and sanity for 2010!

Lisa

It is all over the news, the economy is bad. Yes we know thank you for telling us over and over again because we quite didn’t hear it the first, second or thirteenth time. By the way, did you know the economy is bad?

But what does this mean in terms of a businesses marketing budget? As we all know the first budgets to be cut are always the marketing budget. Why? It seems since the new business is far and few between, the all mighty powers that be feel that marketing isn’t too important as the existing customers will stay customers and why bother to try and pick up new customers during a down economy?

The reason to not stop your marketing is when the economy begins to pick up, the first companies or products which are going to be remembered are the ones who didn’t stop their marketing efforts. And (yes I used an And to begin a sentence) there are people and companies who are still making money and not feeling the downside to this economy. They are still spending money and going about their lives as if nothing has changed. Think about this population and target them!

This is why I ask the question, “Why stop your marketing?”

With all the new ways to market your business, why not open your mind up to the endless possibilities. It’s just not about print or radio anymore! Video optimization, content creation, podcasts, webinars, online article marketing, social media marketing and online press release distribution, oh and blogging; don’t forget blogging, are all great tools to use when you want to continue marketing to reach a different or new audience.

So ask yourself should you stop all your marketing efforts? When this economy begins to turn around, think about who will be ahead (competition) of and who will be left behind (you).

Since my last post was from March 16, I am not doing a great job keeping my personal blog updated. I have been working and focusing on our AdultOrganicSEO.com blog where we update weekly if not a few times per week. Still it isn’t an excuse, especialy when we don’t have to write some huge blog posting, but just a small, nice thought weekly.

I wonder how other small businesses keep their blog updated? I mean I know that a few of them actually hire PearlyWrites to keep their blogs updated daily so does that mean I need to hire a blogger to keep my own blog updated? Really? I mean if I do this for a living shouldn’t I be able to update my own blog if not daily, but weekly? So I am posing my challenge to myself that I must update the PW blog weekly. Even if it’s about small, subtle items, at least their will be content on the blog as we all know the search engines REALLY like new content and blogging is my number one choice to draw the search engines back to a site organically.

Would love to hear how other self-employed people make sure to update their own blog while maintaining multiple client’s blogs. Feel free to share your words of wisdom as we all get side-tracked and any great ideas would be most helpful. Til next time…

Happy Blogging!

In the past year, I have seen more and more Websites, businesses and advertisements for SEO Copywriting. Ironically, PearlyWrites and myself have been providing SEO copywriting since 2003! Back then it wasn’t called SEO copywriting but was known as something called writing for keywords or keyword stuffing. Remember those days???

As PearlyWrites started as a Copywriting Company, providing writing, research and editing services (Get it, “Writing, Research and Beyond…) to all genres and sized businesses, I just wanted to write a blog post getting back to our roots. I guess this came from a older gentleman I met last night at a networking event in Boca Raton, Florida who asked me why I haven’t changed the name of the company if we provide more than Copywriting services. My answer to him was pretty much straight forward, explaining the meaning behind the company and how the company expanded into offering Online Marketing and Design services because that is how our business grew. Also copywriting goes hand in hand with Marketing for print and online so really we never stopped providing writing services.

I am not sure if my answer sufficed him but the truth is we have been PearlyWrites from before the days of keyword stuffing writing and even print marketing writing and then of course we have the meaning behind PearlyWrites. You know the whole middle name of Pearl and starting off as a Freelance Writer.

Though PearlyWrites is a pun for Pearly Whites, we do not provide dental services BUT if a dentist office happens to need online marketing services, we would love to help you! If you think about all the items needed to market your Website and businesses online, it all includes SEO copywriting. From Press Releases, Articles, Web content, blogging, profile info, product descriptions to just name a few, we provide many and more of these items and will even partner with other SEM and SEO firms who would like to outsource their copywriting needs to PW.

Be well!

Lisa

@PearlyWrites

I just received an amazing phone call from a business owner who was the nicest and cutest woman I have spoken to in a long time! She was chuckling from the minute I picked up the phone and I can still feel myself smiling along with her.

She said she was doing Organic SEO research to familiarize herself more about what online marketing  can do for her new Website. (YaY, an informed business owner! WTG! ) When she found my blog and after reading a few entries she said her and her business partner were hysterical. That they haven’t found someone, I assume, who writes from a comedic point of view. (Yes, I can be very sarcastic thanks to my good old Jersey upbringing!)

I am so glad that I brought a smile and happiness to a reader of my blog that it moved her to call me to tell me. That is amazing in itself! And then add in the smile and laughing that went along with our conversation just put the icing on the cake (a Gluten-Free Cake of course!).

Thank you for the phone call and giving me something to write on my blog smiley.

With great excitement I was asked to be a panelist at an AEE (Adult Entertainment Expo) event on Jan. 10. 2009 at the Venetian (Sands Expo Center). I will be on the 10:30am panel on Saturday morning discussing Adult Online Marketing and VERY excited to be sharing the panel with some great and known Adult businesses and gurus.

The moderator is LAJ from YNOT and the Panelists are Jackie Strano from Babeland; Jax Smith from SugarDVD; Farley Cahen from Digital Playground; and Albert Lazarito from man about town. We will be discussing about how to stake your claim on the Internet using online marketing techniques including social media and many more!

Come by and check us out! Let’s get a drink and talk Adult online marketing and SEO.

I am all for social media obviously but when connecting to old “friends” through Facebook, why do the assumptions begin? Many have not been in face to face or phone to phone contact in over 14 years and they assume and act as if they still know you.

They speak aka type toward you versus speaking to have a nice conversation and learning about what you do, your life, and your family. Is that what connecting is to old friends and acquaintances mean in social media? Live in the past and assume you know the person without even taking into consideration the past 15 years of their life? Even the past 5 years or 1 year of an individual’s life!

Seriously, there are many people’s life’s who have not changed either because they do not like change, are content where they are socially and financially, or don’t see a reason to venture out into unfamiliar territory. BUT just because these “old friends” aren’t does not mean you have the right to assume my life and my inner being hasn’t changed.

All you need to do is type in my name or our company name into a search engine and you WILL see how my life has changed for the better. You will see what doors have been opened as well as the person I have become.

When being involved in Social Media, there are certain items we choose to share and put out into the public view and other parts of our lives we don’t. Some social media dominators do share every item with their followers while others keep a low profile. Social Media plays a strong part of any SEO/SEM campaign and acceptance and open mindedness is suggested.

Has social media caused assumptions in your world from your “BI” (Before Internet) life?

Do you only share parts of your life while keeping other parts out of the public social media eye?

How do you handle the assuming people of your past life?

The day of 9/11/01 will be always in our minds and our hearts. For many of us living in the Tri-State area, we were directly affected by the attacks on the World Trade Center as well as the Pentagon. When I was teaching, I would have my students write about their experience of 9/11 because I know how I was affected by it as a 25 year old and felt it was important for teenagers and young 20 somethings to be able to express themselves about this horrible memory either through the written word, the spoken word or through art.

My memory: I was sitting on our couch in Fair Lawn. NJ IM chatting with my brother-in-law who worked by the Pentagon and my mother-in-law called. The day was sunny with a cool breeze in the air. My mother-in-law and I were discussing last minute wedding plans since Aaron and I were set to be married on 9-30-01 at The Rockleigh Country Club.

The TV was on, turned to Fox 5, “Good Day New York,” as the camera panned up and showed the smoke from the first plane that crashed into the first Tower. The reporter wasn’t sure what it was and thought maybe a fire. As the camera was still focused in on the first Tower on fire, the second plane hit and my mother-in-law and I sat in silence and both agreed we were being attacked. And no we weren’t calm. Then we heard about the Pentagon and I assured her I was speaking to my brother-in-law, her son, just a few minutes ago so go and try to reach him and then call us back. Aaron’s oldest brother worked in the Towers and saw the first plane hit and told his entire office to get the hell out NOW! He took off and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge back home to be safe.

I got off the phone with my mother-in-law, still sitting on my couch in Fair Lawn, called Aaron and I couldn’t get through to him. He was working in Short HIlls, NJ at the time. Called and woke my mother up telling her to turn on the TV NOW! She did and said, “I have to call Uncle Joey; I’ll call you back.” My cousins worked in the Towers so for hours that day we couldn’t get in touch with either of them. Aaron finally got in touch with me and he was heading home from work early that day.

All day we didn’t hear back from my cousins and finally toward the evening my mother called telling us that they were safe. They just returned from their honeymoon, came out of the NY Subway, looked up, saw the smoke, and ran right back into the Subway to get away. Aaron’s brother in DC was also safe we found out later that day. All we could do was be grateful that all our family members were save from the attacks on 9/11. The fear we all felt that day will never be forgotten as the ones who lost their lives. Please take a few moments of silence today to remember 9/11.

Please share your memories and thoughts with us.

Being in the business of Organic SEO, the biggest question we receive is, “Do you have any case studies?”

Although I have posted a few throughout the year to our blog, I have decided to document them all right here together. This will not be the long version, but a shorter, more condensed version. This will show the sites which we provide Organic SEO to and how they rank.

Case Study #1 – PearlyWrites
Since we advertise that we offer organic SEO services, I always run a few tests to see if we are ranking for the keywords we are targeting. I’m happy to say for the search term: Virtual Copywriting Company, we are listed as 1 on Google with a few other terms!

Virtual Copywriting Company

Virtual Marketing Company

Virtual SEO Company

Organic SEO Company

Organic SEO Arizona

And if you keep scrolling down, you will see some other listings which also involve PearlyWrites.

Case Study #2 – PB Vixen
Ranked 1st and 2nd page on Google within 3 months:

Adult Copywriting

Adult Organic SEO

Case Study #3 – DayMaid Inc.
Ranked on 1st page:

Northern NJ Housecleaning

ParkRidge NJ Housecleaning

Case Study #4 – AMC
Ranked on page 1 in less than 2 months:
Adult Copywriting

Case Study #5 - SilkWeb Consulting
In less than 3 weeks, ranking on page 1!
Web based career coach

So with a few case studies now posted, why is organic SEO so important? It has to be done consistently otherwise your rankings will eventually drop. Through blog postings, updating of content and the other techniques of Organic SEO, let’s help get your site rank organically in the SERP’s!

Online Branding and Photos

I always thought that getting professional photos or headshots were for actors or well-known, famous people. After attempting to get a nice, decent photo taken of me by others, I finally made the decision to get professional headshots and avator pics taken.

I posted on Twitter for suggestions of a Phoenix photographer and Erica Lucci sent me Tyson Crosbie. I am grateful to both of my Twitter friends as the photo session went wonderful and Tyson is an artist! He made me feel comfortable and the shots came out amazing!

Here are some of the shots:

Although I tell our clients how online branding is important, I wasn’t following my own advice. With Tyson’s pics, I now can go forth and continue with online branding PearlyWrites as the woman who likes to make funny faces and Shirley Temple curls!