GoDaddy to Rescue 850K RegisterFly Domain Names


Posted: May 29th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: SEO PR News | 4 Comments

GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar, has agreed to take over 850,000 domain names managed by competitor RegisterFly. As was previously posted on this blog, RegisterFly is in a heap of financial and operational trouble. Truth is, they’ve had trouble for years. The domain names transferred to GoDaddy had been in limbo with RegisterFly. Owners couldn’t transfer or renew.

Full disclosure: I’m a former and still unhappy RegisterFly customer who switched to become a very happy GoDaddy customer.

An excerpt from the Associated Press story published this evening about the deal:

“For the past few months, they were pretty much in the dark and there was a lot of frustration there,” GoDaddy Chief Executive Bob Parsons said in an interview. “All that is a thing of the past.”

Parsons refused to disclose terms of the transfer deal, saying they are confidential. But he said GoDaddy isn’t buying RegisterFly, so any lawsuits and other previous disputes remain with RegisterFly.

The deal calls for RegisterFly to give GoDaddy its customer databases. Transfers of names will be automatic, and GoDaddy will notify existing RegisterFly customers about the switch and set up a Web page and telephone hotline. GoDaddy expects to start running those names within a week.

You can read the entire story in a variety of places, including Businessweek.

Outsourcing Journalism


Posted: May 19th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Media News | 4 Comments

You know, I’ve come to expect less-than-intelligent moves from the managers of news publications.  Despite that, I was still shocked to hear that an Internet-based news publication in Pasadena is outsourcing its reporting jobs.  How can you do that, you ask?  Well, two reporters in INDIA will be covering the Pasadena city council meetings for pasadenanow.com … via webcam.  Yes, these two men are an ocean (and then some) away, and will be writing stories about sewer and street repair in Pasadena.

Per an Associate Press story that circulated earlier in the week (yeah .. I’m late to this party), the editor of Pasadena Now put an ad on Craig’s List that read:

We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA.

He received responses, and hired two reporters.  They’ll get up early (their time), watch the council meetings, and write the stories while the editor sleeps half a globe away.  The publication is paying the reporters a combined $20,800, which is dirt cheap compared to the cost of paying a reporter in California, but pretty good pay for someone in India.

Now, we’re not talking about the Wall Street Journal here.  Pasadena Now is run out of the house of its editor.  And, one of the reporters is a graduate of the journalism school at the University of California at Berkeley.  With that under consideration, this is still completely and utterly unbelievable … to the point where you want to double check that it’s not a hoax.  There is absolutely no way that these two Indian men can possibly cover the issues in a city in which they do not live.

On top of that, as a PR person how the heck do I pitch a story to them? ;)

Perhaps the saddest part of this is that similar, although not as extreme, situations are found all over the United States, thanks to Clear Channel radio.  The mega media company has a new plan to cover the news in multiple cities out of one newsroom.  For instance, the news in several cities in the Mid-Atlantic region is covered out of Richmond, Virginia’s WRVA Radio.  This is nearly as bad as covering Pasadena from India.

At many news outlets, true journalism is on life support, and it just seems to be getting worse.

Fighting Back Podcast Reviewed


Posted: May 17th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Podcasts, Recommended Sites | No Comments

Fighting Back PodcastThe Fighting Back Podcast, which is produced by the EndGame PR Podcast Production Service for client Fight SMA and its program called FighterMom, was reviewed recently by Podcaster Who’s Who. The site has a podcast of its own that reviews other podcasts. I’m wondering … what’s next? A podcast to review the podcast that reviews podcasts? Despite my lame attempt at humor, I appreciate the kind remarks from Bruce C. in his review.

To check it out, go to Review of Podcasts.

By the way, the next episode of the Fighting Back Podcast is due out late next week. Don’t miss an episode — subscribe via the Fighting Back Podcast Feed or on iTunes.

News Release Writing for SEO versus Writing for Reporters


Posted: May 14th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Media Relations Tactics, SEO PR Tactics | No Comments

I stumbled upon some good tips from Businesswire for news release writing. They call it Writing for Robots vs. Writing for Reporters. I’ve commented on a few. My comments are in italics.

1. Choose and use your keywords. Think like your reader: What words are most likely to be searched for by people looking for what you want them to find in your release? Choose/use those words multiple times.

2. Use bold, italics, headlines and subheads to make key phrases and keywords more visible. Emphasized text may help your release stand out and can positively impact search engine results.

But don’t overdo it. It becomes annoying and hard to read.

3. Keep it readable. While your goal is to appear high in search engine results, don’t miss the mark by writing copy that’s overly repetitive, spammy or unreadable. You want search engines to find you and for readers to click through to your text. Strike a balance.

It’s an extremely difficult balance. Strive for it. If you have to err, err on the side of readability. It does you little good to have a highly-ranked release that no one wants to read.

4. Be careful with puns, innuendo and double meanings. Search engines, spiders and robots have no sense of humor. Keep this in mind when trying to attract their attention.

In other words … don’t get too cute.

5. Write timely content that provides useful information to readers. Provide tips, advice, or analysis in your press release that is relevant to your industry or your customers’ interests. Search engines are more likely to include releases that are honestly useful in their results.

I haven’t found that the search engines know what’s useful and what’s not. This is excellent advice for getting people to read your releases, though, and also is good advice for blog writing.

6. Utilize hyperlinks and anchortext, but don’t overdo it. Too many links can flag your release as spam and get you kicked out. One link max per 100 words is recommended. Choose relevant links that direct traffic to the specific pages you are promoting rather than generic company links.

7. Be consistent. Some words have multiple spellings — such as t-shirt and tee-shirt, or email and e-mail. Stick with one spelling to avoid appearing illiterate, preferably choosing the more frequently searched spelling.

8. Keep it fresh. As releases age, they tend to drift lower in the search engine results pages. A campaign of several releases is more likely to drive results than a single press release.

Excellent advice that I frequently give my clients. I recommend at least one release per month.

9. Publish on your own website. Be sure to publish releases sent on the wire or EON to your own website also. Since links are like votes, link to them. And work with your web team to make sure your site is optimized.

This is one a lot of people don’t understand. “Why should I link to my release?” This is why. It makes your release rank higher, and thus the links you get back if it’s posted someplace else more valuable.

10. Use Business Wire for the Big Bang; EON for the Long Tail. We’ve witnessed the best outcomes when press releases are sent on Business Wire and EON. Business Wire provides the big burst of attention; EON gives it the Long Tail and allows it to live forever online.

I could do without the commercial, but I included it because they did the work for me on this blog post :)

Media Relations & SEO PR Blog Has a New URL


Posted: May 11th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: EndGame PR Site News | No Comments

In case you didn’t catch it in my last post (see below), this blog has a new URL. If you’ve bookmarked this site, or put it in your blogroll, or posted about it on your blog, PLEASE change the URL to www.endgamepr.com/blog. If you don’t have this blog in your blogroll … shame on you! Put it in there now!

Also, since I switched URLs, it looks like of my posts have been Dugg. Feel free to Digg the crap out of my blog to help me catch up! :)

Comments

A Website Built by a PR Firm?

You might think it's strange to hire a PR firm to develop your organization's website.
 
We don't.
 
We think it's a smart strategy for your site to be part of a larger PR and social media marketing plan.
 
>> Read more...

The Latest News

 
>> More news...

The Social Media PR Blog

 
>> More blog posts...

Twitter Facebook Google LinkedIn Email