The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Six Apart ‘Site of the Day’ needs publicity ideas

8 Responses

1. Valerie Hayes Says:
   August 1st, 2007 at 3:37 am

   Nancy,

   Congratulations on your website being featured on Typepad. What a great opportunity to get people on your mailing list! Your website has a lot of visual interest, but I’m concerned that the sign-up box for your newsletter may get “lost” on the page. In order to take full advantage of your increased website traffic, you might consider enlarging or repositioning your sign-up box to make it more noticeable. The upper right corner is considered “prime real estate” for sign-up boxes. Or, you want to add an interesting pop-up sign-up box, like the ones featured on http://www.adimpact.com (check out their “sample” page.)

   Instead of your current generic text inviting guests to sign-up, how about something like “Are you a spirited woman? Sign-up now to receive our complimentary newsletter for spirited women, just like you!”

   By the way, I LOVE the photos on your home page.

   Hope that helps!

   Best wishes,

   Valerie Hayes

2. Ginny Stibolt Says:
   August 1st, 2007 at 5:01 am

   Nancy should spell stationery correctly.

   She should not open a new window for each page–it’s irritating.

   She needs a mission statement or some kind of defining paragraph on what a “Spirited Woman” is. Her message is too scattered.

3. Barbra Sundquist Says:
   August 1st, 2007 at 6:00 am

   My first impression of the website was positive - beautiful colours. But my second impression was “what is it?” Yes, I know that the reader can figure it out if they read down, but when I arrive at a site I like to see some sort of tagline right under the header that tells me what the website offers. That way I can decide without much reading if it is of interest to me.

   Hope this helps, and good luck!

4. Shonika Proctor Says:
   August 1st, 2007 at 10:39 am

   Hi Nancy,

   1. I agree wih Valerie in regards to making the sign up for the newsletter box more prominent and I think it would be easier to spot if you move it to the right side of the page instead. Definitely want to capture all the emails you can to take advantage of all the ‘f.ree’ traffic you will be getting.

   2. Also maybe you can offer something enticing like: From breakdown to breakthrough, 10 * feel good * things to keep your spirits up when you subscribe to this newsletter. Provide your favorite 10 feel good things that you live by to remain a spirited woman everyday.

   3. Share the Love Do a countdown starting tomorrow on the site and make a post each day of how it feels to be 1 of millions featured and how you think you got picked.

   4. And make sure you offer a special message, make a special announcement, introduce a new product or service (if you have time to put something together by the 11th). Perhaps you can send out a press release to build further anticipation and interest for people who will be looking for that ’special message’.

   Congratulations and good luck!

5. Chandra Says:
   August 1st, 2007 at 4:43 pm

   I agree with all the above points, and it’d be nice if your photo (maybe a posed studio head-and-shoulders?) was in the top logo - when I see that, it’s like the website owner is greeting me and instantly imprints your personality on the site.

   I like the fresh fruity colour scheme, but I’m not crazy about the multiple colours used in the body text on http://www.thespiritedwoman.com/ - one stand-out colour would do for me.

   Finally, the text in the navigation bar at the l.hand side is a little small - making it at least the same size as the body text would make the page look more integrated.

   And since it’s obviously a nav bar/menu, you could dispense with the underlining on links in there, so long as you use a different colour for links than you use to emphasise words in the body text.

   Everything else I liked, especially the page about blog-centred sites, and I’ll be signing up for your newsletter as soon as I’ve hit “Submit Comment” here!

   Good luck!
   Chandra (London, England)

6. Jim Labadie Says:
   August 1st, 2007 at 8:32 pm

   One word: Video!

   Videotape yourself with a crystal clear message for all those visitors to see first thing on the 11th. Who are you? How do you help them? Why should they subscribe to your newsletter? Besides just looking around what specific action do you want them to take once they land on your blog?

   Video is such a powerful way to deliver a concise message. And it shouldn’t be like your other video where they have to click multiple times to watch it. It should be like an embedded YouTube video where they click on the video and the message plays. Give your visitor too many things to do and they just might leave.

   Good luck!

   Jim Labadie
   http://Prograde-Cravers.com

7. Stacey Kannenberg Says:
   August 2nd, 2007 at 7:21 am

   I would profile a highly spirited woman on that day!! I would run a campaign starting today to tie into six degrees of separation to see who your readers already know that are a few degrees away to find your amazing spirited lady to profile. Not only will this help you find other spirited women to profile, but it will empower your existing base to help you find some truly amazing people and share the path. For example, I know a producer at Rachael Ray….so we are two away from Rachael Ray! Next…

8. Lin Edards Says:
   August 8th, 2007 at 11:21 am

   Nancy’s website could look more professional. I would suggest that she looks up some alternative templates in Typepad. The side bars look very cluttered.

   While she may like the colour pink, it does not work for her on the side columns. Keep the pink colour for highlighting or the banner making it easier for the reader.

   As this is built on a blog platform she should move the email update to the top right and also add RSS feeds which she can automate with Typepad through Feedburner. Also she should add her email contact to her banner. See an example of these features at http://www.todayswomeninbusiness.com authored by another spirited woman Krishna De who is based in Ireland.

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