OTA Participation to Partnership Here is how to manage your OTA relationships to drive maximum value. Friday, January 14, 2011 Kristi White

OTAs have the ability to attract shoppers. Deep advertising pockets place OTAs in front of millions of consumers every day. To benefit from their substantive spend, hoteliers need to strike a balance. With OTAs, the key is to move from a participant to a partnership mindset, leveraging these relationships to drive maximum visibility and value. In other words, full and active participation in building and managing the relationship is critical to its success. To make this transition, you need to understand the success factors for developing a strategically sound partnership with an OTA.

If your hotel is properly positioned, advertising dollars spent by OTAs can benefit your hotel both directly and indirectly. Let’s start by looking at the real value of that presence.

Benefiting from the billboard effect: the first-page advantage

In October 2009, Cornell Hospitality Report published an article titled, “The Billboard Effect: Online Travel Agent Impact on Non-OTA on Non-OTA Reservation Volume.” A well-researched document, it presented the reservations value of hotel placement on an OTA. Four test hotels (three branded properties and one independent property) spent 7–11 days cycling on and off Expedia over a three-month period. In the 7–11 days each hotel was displayed on Expedia, it appeared at the top of the first page. On the off days, the property was not available on the OTA site.

During these periods, average daily bookings were monitored. The study found that when the hotels appeared on Expedia at the top of the first page, their average daily bookings increased—from a low of 7.5 percent at a branded hotel to a high of 25 percent at the single independent hotel—versus the days where they were not displayed on the site. In total, the billboard effect was estimated at 20 percent. In effect, a hotel that receives 10 percent of its overall contribution from the OTAs also receives another 10 percent in direct web bookings contribution by being promoted on the OTAs. This halo effect of direct bookings would in theory cut the margins paid to the OTAs by half.

At face value, this study implies that just by being on the OTAs, your hotel gains a 10 percent direct web contribution. However, we need to look more closely at the optimum page placement for the test hotels. How many hotels have the luxury of first-page, top-of-the-fold placement or even first-page placement? In any given market that number is probably no more than 20–30 hotels rotating regularly into those spots. So, if you are one of those hotels, you undoubtedly benefit from the billboard effect. However, if you are not on the first page, the billboard effect is probably not as strong, and the farther you get from the first page, the more diminished the effect becomes.

At the Cornell Hospitality Research Summit conference in early October, Brian Ferguson from Expedia lifted the veil on customer booking patterns. He told conference attendees that 95 percent of Expedia’s bookings occur on the first page, and 47 percent of those are in the top six spots. This reinforces the Cornell study finding that the maximum billboard effect will occur when you are in the top spots or at the very least, on the first page.

Being seen from the start: the OTA advantage

What is the major advantage, then, of participating in the OTAs that might outweigh the associated costs? Simply stated, it increases the likelihood that you will be seen at the onset of consumer research. Studies have found that travel shoppers use OTAs more for research than for booking. The chart below shows where consumers begin the booking process: 31 percent start on one of the OTAs. And many search engine and meta search results also direct consumers to OTA sites. So, by being on the site somewhere, you will potentially be viewed as shoppers begin their research, becoming part of the consumer’s consideration set.

Source: 2009 National Leisure Travel MONITOR

This effectively broadens your hotel’s marketing reach, as the average hotel doesn’t have the budget to reach millions of consumers at the point of research. From the perspective of reaching customers you couldn’t reach on your own, the OTAs definitely provide a boon for hotels.


Choosing the right program: how to make it work

As you consider developing a more strategic relationship with the OTAs, evaluate the programs in which your hotel participates. Multiple options are available, each providing a different opportunity to market your hotel, depending on your need:

Standard Merchant Rate – This is the base offer where your hotel signs a contract for a specific margin, and offers a rate that is discounted by this amount from your best available rate (BAR).

• Advantage – This is the OTAs’ most common offering. Customers have full awareness of the hotel they are purchasing and can use these rates to help with their research process.
• What to Do – Make sure you offer inventory when you need rooms filled and keep your long-term rates competitive. Also, make sure your hotel gets positive ratings to enhance your page placement. Be consistent in your strategy since most ranking algorithms use history to determine future placement.

Packages – With this program, your hotel can offer deeper discounts because the rate is suppressed as a part of the total package. Therefore, consumers don’t know what rate they are paying for each portion of the package.

• ADVANTAGE –Your hotel can offer deeper discounts when you need to move distressed inventory. A segment of travelers prefer packages.
• What to Do – Offer a limited amount of inventory as needed to build a base of business without damaging yield opportunities. Increase available inventory when projected occupancy is well below target. Make sure you look well out in the future when managing these rates, since dynamic packages have a much longer advance booking window than room-only rates, and longer length of stays.

Promotions – This option offers a unique merchandising opportunity to create excitement for specific offers such as length-of-stay discounts or value-add offers.

• ADVANTAGE – This option improves site placement and enables your hotel to uniquely merchandise special offers that the OTAs showcase on their sites.
• What to Do –Understand your booking window and average length of stay and ensure rates are properly fenced in order to prevent trade-down and rate dilution. Also, offer your promotions to all OTAs as well as your own proprietary booking engine for rate parity.

Opaque – These programs suppress your hotel’s identity until after the point of purchase.

• ADVANTAGE – Your hotel can use these programs to move distressed inventory without eroding brand and pricing integrity.
• What to Do – Actively manage your opaque rates as occupancy increases versus closing them out to maximize your RevPar. Either raise your rates or control discounts through use of length-of-stay controls. Use the pricing data provided by opaque sites to price your rooms to ensure that you capture demand as needed and that the incremental revenue contributes to your bottom line. Also, remember it is never too late to load opaque rates, since the channel has an extremely short booking window. A significant portion of opaque bookings are made on the same day as check-in.

Leverage your market manager: the key to a strong partnership

The foundation of a strategically sound partnership with the OTAs is building and maintaining a relationship with your market manager—the OTA employee assigned to helping your hotel use your OTA program more effectively. Manage this relationship the same way your hotel manages key corporate accounts. Developing strong OTA relationships can help your hotel move from being an OTA participant to an OTA partner.

If you can move from passive participation to active partnership, your relationship with OTAs can be advantageous for your hotel’s occupancy and profitable for your bottom line.

Technology

Follow us on Twitter @hotelinteractiv

OTA Participation to Partnership: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Top Free SEO Tools

Search engine optimization involves various processes and tasks. In fact, website optimizers have to juggle links, anchor text, keywords and crawlers all at the same time. While the optimization process can't be totally automated, there are free SEO tools that can make the work easier.

The number of SEO tools in the World Wide Web is overwhelming, and many of them are offered absolutely free. To make the right choices, here's a detailed list of the best free SEO tools. These tools vary in the way they are being used.

These free SEO tools are designed for various purposes, but are nonetheless needed in the entire optimization process.

1. AddMe.com (No surprises here)

A search engine submission program, AddMe is one of the many free SEO tools that submit your URL to search engines so that Internet users can find you online.

It's perfectly fine to be listed by the major search engines only, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. However, if you want a wider online audience, try this search engine submission tool.

One good thing about AddMe is that it submits websites to 20 different search engines. With such free SEO tools, you don't have to go to each end every search engine to enhance your online presence.

After the search engine submission tool submits your site's keywords, description and URL, you will begin to receive website traffic. Just note that it may take time for all search engines to include your site in their listings.

2. Google Analytics/Google Webmaster Console

One of the most popular free SEO tools, Google Analytics provides comprehensive information and detailed reports about your website. Among these reports are your site's traffic behavior, funnel data and content visitation among others.

Analytics can also be considered another one of those website promotion tools. It lets you see which parts of your website are generating clicks and leads, as well as the parts to work on to improve website promotion. Tools like the Google Webmaster Console also provide similar information, such as crawling speed, crawling rate and how Google "sees" your backlinks among others.

3. Firefox with the Web Developer Extension

Firefox is a very flexible Web browser. It provides a wealth of useful extensions, including free SEO tools. The Web Developer extension lets you easily remove a site's javascript components and cascading styles. It also allows you to look at a webpage's external links. Perhaps the best part about the extension is that you can add your own website promotion tools and other SEO applications to the menu.

4. KeywordDiscovery

Another one of the free SEO tools that simplifies keyword research, KeywordDiscovery can generate top 100 keywords that can help improve your site's rankings. You simply type in a seed keyword on the tool's search term suggestion tool, and you get comprehensive keyword data gathered from more than 180 search engines.

5. SEO for Firefox

Other free SEO tools out there can't match the amount of information this Firefox tool provides. This program gathers data on a particular page, along with information regarding a search engine.

Unlike most free SEO tools, SEO for Firefox allows you to directly export information from the SERPs to CSV. Also, the tool gives relevant information, such as page rank, domain age, cache data, backlinks in Yahoo, number of cached pages and number of .edu links among others.

6. Google PageRank Checker

Google's PageRank Checker is one of the free SEO tools that are useful for just about anyone who has a site. It ranks a website according to how popular Google thinks it is. The highest score is 10 and the lowest is one. Furthermore, the ranking is based on the value of the links that lead to your site. The higher a link's value, the better your site's page rank.

A combination of these free SEO and website promotion tools is a great idea, especially if you're serious about your business and search engine optimization efforts. These tools are totally free, so don't hesitate to try them all out.

Top Free SEO Tools

Making sure your URLs are user and SEO friendly - Dot Tourism

A URL is more than just the the location of your website and doesn’t just provide the navigation around your pages. A well thought out URL structure can bring with it search engine optimisation benefits as well as offering benefits to your users.

Anatomy of a URL

Before diving into what makes a good URL it’s important that you understand how they are made up.

The image above illustrates the different parts of your URL. It is worth spending the time when launching a new site to plan the URL structure as getting it right will have a positive effect on your online presence.

What makes a good URL

Keep it clear and descriptive
Ideally the URL should describe the content of the page. If a user can look at a URL in isolation of it’s page and know accurately what the content might include, you know you have a good URL. Keep your URL descriptive and try to avoid using numbers or generic descriptions such as page1.html. URLs that contain words relevant to your site’s content are far more user friendly.

Keep it short
While you can have URLs up to 2000 characters in length, in reality you shouldn’t reach anything near this. A short URL is far more usable and is more likely to be written down and shared. Avoid the use of unnecessary folders when planning your site structure; it’s important to avoid deep nesting of subdirectories. Search engines won’t crawl pages that are buried deep in your site as frequently.

You also should avoid having too many words in your URL. Aside from making them look like spam to human visitors it is generally recognised that search engines will give less weight to individual words when they are part of a whole string within a URL.

Use your keywords
You probably take every advantage to use keywords where you can and in your URL is no exception. The URL to your page is shown in search results and words within the URL will appear in bold if they also appear in the user’s search query. Another benefit is that when users share your URL, for example pasting it into forums, you will gain good incoming links with your keyword in the link text. However avoid over use of keywords - you don’t want your URL to look like spam to potential visitors.

Separate with hyphens not underscores
Make sure to separate words with hyphens. Although search engines won’t penalise underscores dashes are preferable as each hyphened word is seen as an individual. Using punctuation also makes the URL a lot easier for your human visitors to read and understand.

Use lower case
As URLs are case sensitive don’t ever use uppercase letters in your structure. Users will normally stick to lowercase and adding in capitals can lead to confusion.

Avoid excessive dynamic parameters
Ideally you should use static URLs which are preferable for both users and search engines. Dynamic URLs containing multiple parameters can cause a problems for search engines and you may find that your site isn’t fully indexed. Whenever possible trim unnecessary parameters and avoid the use of things such as the use of session IDs in URLs.

Avoid subdomains
Subdomains which will often create unnecessarily lengthy and complex URLs which users don’t always trust. You may also find that subdomains have the potential to be treated separately from the primary domain when it comes to passing link value. While this isn’t always the case advice tends to steer on the path of caution and recommend against their use.

Read More...

Making sure your URLs are user and SEO friendly - Dot Tourism

Recognition for Matava at the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2010 | Matava - Fijis Premier Eco Adventure Resort

MEDIA RELEASE: 29^th November 2010

Recognition for Matava at the
Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2010

Matava has won in the Best in the Marine Environment category at this year’s Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2010 organised by responsibletravel.com.

The Judges said “Matava is a beacon for responsible tourism and an example to other dive sites. They maintain a strong commitment to both the conservation of the marine environment and the development of the local Fijian community. All staff and dive guides are from local villages, they have signed an agreement with local villages designating 3 established marine reserves as 100% no-take zones, across large geographic areas, and even succeeded in assisted in getting marine conservation on to the Fijian National Curriculum.”

At a ceremony hosted at World Travel Market (WTM), Docklands, London, on Wednesday 10^thresponsibletravel.com, organisers and founders of the Awards, and Amanda Wills, managing director of Virgin Holidays, headline sponsor of the Awards.

November, the Awards were handed out by Justin Francis, managing director of

Justin Francis, founder of The Responsible Tourism Awards and managing director, responsibletravel.com, organisers of the Awards said:

“This year I have been heartened by the depth of commitment and connection our winners have shown to the local communities in their destinations. Their successes and pioneering spirits are remarkable and the very real and authentic experiences they have created, set responsible tourism apart. They also remind us that holidays can be both luxurious for visitor and enhancing for local people – helping build schools, water pumps, clinics and conserving cultural and natural heritage.”

Lorna Young accepting Matava’s Award at WTM 2010

Richard Akhtar, Director of Matava – Fiji’s Premier Eco Adventure Resort said:

“At Matava, we are of course both happy and proud to receive this prestigious global award. We find it even more important that the industry, by rewarding similar efforts, choose to take a stand for the environment we depend on. We also see it as an important continuing signal to the community which at the same time can serve to inspire the numerous individuals and companies who have been doing so much, and continue to do even more in the field of environmental enlightenment and conservation. This award has highlighted Fiji’s leading role and efforts in this regard especially.”

Amanda Wills, managing director, Virgin Holidays, headline sponsor of the Awards said:

“I’m once again humbled by the commitment, drive and ingenuity of today’s winners. They have shown us all what can be achieved by the people and places seeking to benefit from tourism, even when the economic climate continues to challenge us all. Their’s is truly an example for the rest of the industry to follow, and I’m delighted that Virgin Holidays is again able to be a part of this celebration.”

Launched in 2004, the Awards are run in association with partners World Travel Market, Metro Newspaper and Geographical

Over the years the Awards have celebrated the best in responsible tourism, and attracted some of the best celebrity supporters, including Michael Palin and Paul Theroux!

In 2010 Simon Reeve, best-selling author, presenter and broadcaster launched the Awards with an exclusive interview in Metro Newspaper:

“The Responsible Tourism Awards focus attention on travel firms that are providing us all with amazing trips that make a difference to a local community while still protecting the environment and our planet. And they remind us that responsible travel is not only better for our world, it’s also more interesting and memorable. Responsible tourism is the future of travel.”

Liz Bonin, Wild Animal biologist, biochemist and presenter of ‘Bang Goes the Theory’ on BBC1 also lent her support to the Awards with an exclusive interview on wildlife and responsible tourism in Metro Newspaper:

“If we make the effort to respect our holiday destinations and contribute responsibly to the local economy by staying in local farms or homestays and exploring the local wildlife through eco-tourism, we benefit by getting a real sense of local culture and discovering hidden treasures we could never get from a faceless resort holiday, all the while knowing that we have our done our bit to keep this planet happy and healthy. The Responsible Tourism Awards are doing a fantastic job at reminding us of our duty to travel in this responsible way.”

For a full list of finalists, see www.responsibletourismawards.com

- Ends -

Notes to editors

About Matava – Fiji’s Premier Eco Adventure Resort

Matava – Fiji’s Premier Eco Adventure Resort, is an eco adventure getaway offering you a fun and unique blend of cultural experiences and adventure activities in the environmentally pristine and remote island of Kadavu in the Fiji Islands. Matava – Fiji Premier Eco Adventure Resort is a PADI 5 Star Dive Resort as well as a Project AWARE GoEco Operator. With more than 14 years experience in the Fiji Islands, Matava is recognized as a leading educational dive centre. Matava offers accommodation for up to 22 guests in lush tropical surroundings in traditional thatched Fijian ‘bures’ with hardwood polished floors, louvre windows and private decks offering privacy, comfort and superb ocean views.

For interviews, images or further information please contact Stuart Gow, Stuart@Matava.com, t: 679-997-5416

About The Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards

The Awards are the most prestigious and competitive of their kind in the world and are a collaboration between online travel directory responsibletravel.com; UK media partners Metro Newspaper and Geographical Magazine and World Travel Market who host the ceremony. The central tenet of the Awards is that all types of tourism – from niche to mainstream – can and should be operated in a way that respects and benefits destinations and local people.

About responsibletravel.com:

responsibletravel.com is the world’s leading travel agent for responsible holidays. The site offers over 3,500 richer, deeper and more locally distinctive travel experiences that are better for destinations and local communities.

Whether you’re after an action-packed adventure, a relaxing beach escape or a charming countryside getaway closer to home, there’s something to suit all tastes and budgets.

Co-founder, Justin Francis had the original idea for the website on his travels through Africa having completed his MSc in Responsible Tourism. He launched the site with backing from Dame Anita Roddick in 2001 and since then has been included in Courvoisier’s The Future 500, Thames and Hudson’s 60 Innovators Shaping Our Creative Future and taken his place on the Advisory Board of The International Centre for Responsible Tourism at Leeds Metropolitan University. Based in Brighton, England responsibletravel.com also campaigns for positive change in the travel and tourism industry.

Contact:

Stuart Gow
Stuart@Matava.com
+679 603 0685

Alex Lyons
press@responsibletravel.com
+44 (0)1273 648 519

Recognition for Matava at the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2010 | Matava - Fijis Premier Eco Adventure Resort

Fake reviews on TripAdviser now punishable

Fake reviews on TripAdviser now punishable

"Fraudulent reviewers beware. Hundreds of hotels and restaurants are planning to reveal the identities of bogus reviewers on travel websites, such as TripAdvisor.

news.com.au reported that UK-based online reputation management company, Kwikchex, is preparing to publish a list containing thousands of suspected false and defamatory reviewers.

Once released, the accused will be afforded two weeks to provide evidence of their stay or facts to support their outlandish comments. If they are unable to oblige, legal consequences may follow.

Australians are not exempt and could potentially be sued for posting false or exaggerated reviews, with legal repercussions ranging into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The UK’s Mail Online reported that Kwikchex plan to apply for a court order that would force TripAdvisor to disclose any information they retain in regards to the identity of reviewers in order to repair the integrity and reputation of shamed businesses.

“It (TripAdvisor) is highly influential in terms of buying decisions by consumers and whilst many of the reviews on their site provide a good guide, there are several elements within the TripAdvisor operating procedures that are questionable,” according to Kwikchex’s website.

“If you put up a false review – one that’s not based on your stay at the hotel and reporting what factually happened to you – there is the potential to be sued” says Robert Todd, lawyer for Australian law firm Blake Dawson.

According to Kwikchex, those people who can prove they have contacted TripAdvisor and have attempted to have their comments removed, without success, will be exempt from prosecution.

Kwikchex claims there are “over 1100 results on TripAdvisor, many alleging physical and sexual abuse against managers and owners that wish to clear their names in a court of law, but who have up until now, been prevented from doing so.”

“I would suggest that a person sets out all the facts and then says (something like) ‘I think this is not the best value’,” Robert recommends.

The authenticity of these often malicious and brazen reviews is going unchecked according to Good Hotel Guide editor, Adam Raphael.

He claimed his publication had been overrun by hoteliers complaining about “fraudulent reviews” and “bogus reviewers” on TripAdvisor.

“Millions of consumers are beginning to realise that they have been gulled by bogus reviewers” said Mr Raphael.
A spokesperson for TripAdvisor told Mail Online that their website would only reveal reviewer information if forced to do so via a court order."

8 Ways to Promote Your Travel Blog | The Planet D: Around the World Adventure Couple

So you’ve written something amazing and you want people to read it. It is funny, profound and filled with great information. But nobody is coming over to your blog for a visit.

Let’s face it, most of us aren’t writing a blog for ourselves. We would appreciate an audience. But how does one get an audience, especially when they are first starting out?

You have to network. If people don’t know you are out there, they will never find you.

There are many technical things that can help a person to place higher in the search engines. If you show up on the first page of Google, you will definitely find an audience of people looking for advice and information. But that doesn’t happen overnight.

Read full article here: 8 Ways to Promote Your Travel Blog | The Planet D: Around the World Adventure Couple

Google Instant 101

Still wondering how Google Instant—the new enhancement that shows results as you type—changes search marketing? Well, Google promises to shave 2.5 seconds off each user's search, with the end result of 10-percent faster searches.
In a recent post at the Daily Fix blog, David Felfoldi cites the benefits of this change, according to Google:

• Predictive Typing. As you type, a prediction is made of what you are seeking.
• Instant Results. As you type, the results appear. Every typed character updates the search results instantly.

How will it affect your efforts? Here are four ways Felfoldi says Google Instant has already changed the search landscape:

• Short attention spans will grow even shorter. An entire new search results page of options is now just a keystroke away. "Keep your copy brief, to the point, and able to grab attention," Felfoldi advises.
• Impression counts may increase. When a searcher stops typing and the results are displayed for three seconds or more, Google counts the pause as an impression. To see the impact of this change, Felfoldi suggests monitoring AdWords accounts closely for a while.
• There will be greater competition for shorter phrases. "No longer is your competition the other websites that rank for your target or niche keyphrase term like 'tankless water heater,' " Felfoldi notes. "Rather, it is also the shorter phrases, like 'tankless' and 'tankless water' that now also appear as the user types in their full search phrase. Each phrase presents a new layer of competition for you to now consider."
• Predictive search = keyword research. You can look to predictive search to help choose your hottest keywords. "The term that appears first is probably the most common search result, and the one you should consider targeting," Felfoldi advises.
• The Po!nt: Success is rarely instant. Make sure your search strategy addresses Google's latest enhancement—and the changing user behaviors likely to result.

Source: Daily Fix.

Are you getting the right guest feedback?

Internet forums, online reviews, customer polls – sometimes there's so much information out there it can be difficult to know which source to trust. Can you rely purely on online information or is there still a role for traditional customer research?

Jonathan Barsky and Robert Honeycutt from research specialists Market Metrix, argue that while social media has an important role to play, the hospitality industry shouldn't give up on traditional customer research.

Read the full article here

TripAdvisor's new Reviews at a Glance

Launched in September, TripAdvisor's new Reviews at a Glance feature summarizes the most frequent review phrases for hotels with over 50 reviews. With it, travelers can quickly browse the pros and cons of booking at a particular property, and click on various quoted phrases to quickly read the full text of relevant reviews; they no longer need to dig for the details they're most interested in.

For example, take Hotel Giraffe in New York City. While reading all of the hotel's more than 650 reviews could take some time, Reviews at a Glance summarizes the most common review phrases, such as "Very Nice, "Great Location," and "Free Internet," in a box above the most recent reviews. This allows consumers to get a quick snapshot of the overall traveler sentiment on a property without having to read through dozens of reviews at a time.

Click here to see Reviews at a Glance in action

Simply put, the single most effective thing to gaining the attention of individuals in a world of information overload is writing compelling titles. While your content may not be as exciting as your title, it’s going to be difficult to develop a massive following if you don’t excite, taunt, tease, challenge, educate, or entertain your followers. So stop being boring! Here are 10 titles that will reach out of your fans’ computer screen and virtually smack them in the face (in a nice way of course)!

Think And Grow Rich

Not only is this one of my favorite books of all-time, but the title is also one of the most successful ones ever written. It makes a compelling offer: think and you can become rich. Is there anything else that you need to do? Who knows, but if all I need to ever do is think in order to become rich, I definitely need to find out what I need to be thinking! The Napoleon Hill book has become one of the most sold books ever and while it’s also the original self-help book, it’s also one of the best titles ever written.
The lesson learned from this title is pretty simple: offer people a simple solution (thinking) for creating dramatic change (becoming rich).

The 4-Hour Workweek

I honestly put this book down halfway through because I felt like Tim Ferris was teaching me how to skip class in high school, something that I could just as easily write a book on. However Tim has implemented a formula for success. In addition to extensively testing numerous titles, something that is mandatory for any successful marketers, he built a book which promises something which most people would consider unimaginable.
Be warned though: using this technique is guaranteed to get peoples’ attention, but if you don’t follow it up with quality content, you are going to end up with instant buyers remorse.
The lesson learned here is clear though: simply offer something that most people could only dream of.

WATCH: Man Stops Speeding Train With Bare Hands!

This is something that I regularly use to drive traffic to this site. While it’s somewhat of a psychological trick, telling people do do things (click, watch, click, etc) is more likely to result in that action taking place. I’m not sure where I read it, but the word “STOP!” has a dramatic effect on people. In addition to seeing stop signs, the word is typically used to let people know there is something important they need to pay attention to. It also results in an action.
Lesson: by occasionally using action words to tell the user what action to take, you can actually drive more instances of that action.

How To Win Friends And Influence People

This is another killer book. This Dale Carnegie classic offered valuable insight for understanding the social dynamics of success. It also promised the reader two valuable skills: winning friends and influencing people. Any title that gives you two compelling things for the price of one is always guaranteed to get peoples’ attention.

7 Proven Techniques To Skyrocket Sales

List articles, like this one, always tend to perform well. If you can give people small bits of “content candy” that is easy and quick to digest, you’ll always be sure to do well. Additionally, not only do you want a list of things, but you clearly want a list of things that are compelling to the group of people you are targeting. By offering your readers (fans) a list of items that they can quickly consumer, you’re practically guaranteed to get people to click, comment, or like.

The Scott Pilgrim Handbook To Facebook Marketing

While Scott Pilgrim may be one of the best selling characters among Amazon books right now, there are plenty of other popular books that people recognize. The main strategy used here is offering a recognizable super hero or expert’s name and associating it with something they’d either be good at or something that seems completely unrelated (see our article on “What Hotel Towels Can Teach You About Facebook Fans“).

WARNING: This Secret Sales Technique Is Not For The Faint Of Heart

Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich

I use this title because it’s the name of a book by David Garfinkel which is filled with hundreds of titles that you can use to provoke your fans, followers, readers, and anybody else that visits your site or Facebook Page. I’ve used the book personally to find titles that generate results. While there are tons of resources, like “swipe files” (Google it), for discovering titles, this books is the best one I’ve found yet that serves as an excellent companion when creating titles. Just like the other titles, this title offers the reader something insanely compelling. It’s pretty similar to “Think And Grow Rich” to be honest.

Speak Spanish Like A Diplomat

While I’ve never used this title personally, I grabbed this one from the book I just mentioned and I found it to be quite compelling. It offers the reader the opportunity to learn how to perform a skill just like the experts. While I doubt the title “Perform Surgery Like A Surgeon” isn’t going to be your best performing article, an article such as “Crush Sales Like True Closers” would probably perform decently. I’m sure you can brainstorm plenty of other titles (speaking of which, please feel free to post some in the comments).

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

I’m giving away my own secrets this one. This title has helped me drive more than 2 million people to this site. The title was also followed by an extremely compelling article that provided detailed instructions on how users can protect themselves. The combination of a broad audience (Facebook users) with instructions on how to quickly make the user safer (security ranks high in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs) provided explosive results. You can use this title as well by just filling in the blanks: “10 ______________ Every ______________ Should Know”, replacing the first blank with some sort of desirable piece of information (sales techniques, safety rules, etc) and the target market (Facebook users, gamers, mothers, brilliant students, etc).

Don’t Become The Boy Who Cried Wolf!

These titles can be extremely powerful but they can also kill your brand overnight. The reason is that if you over-promise something and under-deliver, the reader will have the feeling of buyers remorse, even if they got the content for free. You must continuously test new ways to improve your skills and then share those techniques with others. If you aren’t improving, then you aren’t going to be providing information which is valuable. Seriously, I can’t emphasize this enough. Providing junk content will kill any hope you have for being successful.

Master Facebook Marketing

If you haven’t yet tried out Facebook ads, you can get $25 in ad credits for free by entering the ad coupon code “afblog-sept2010” next time you create an ad campaign. If you want to stay on top of all the latest Facebook advertising strategies, make sure that you subscribe to our Facebook Marketing weekly newsletter. We’ll continue covering this topic in more depth over the coming weeks and months.

1. “The promotional coupon code for Facebook Ads of USD $25 are valid only for purchase of advertising through Facebook’s online advertising system. Advertisers will be charged for incremental cost of advertising that exceeds the promotional credit. Advertisers will need to suspend their ads if they do not wish to receive additional charges beyond the initial promotional credit amount. Subject to ad approval, valid registration and acceptance of the generally applicable Facebook Advertising Terms and Conditions at http://www.facebook.com/terms_ads.php. The promotional coupon code and advertising credits are non-transferable and may not be sold or bartered. Offer may be revoked at any time for any reason by Facebook. Quantities are limited. You may only redeem this promotional coupon code if you do not currently have an advertiser account on Facebook. Once you register for an advertiser account, you may only redeem one promotional code coupon. Promotional coupon codes are valid only for purchase of Facebook Ads, and must be applied to a new Facebook advertiser’s account within 15 days of the creation of the account and used within 90 days of such application to a new account. Promotional coupon codes expire 10/3/2010 and cannot be applied to a Facebook advertising account after the expiration date. Facebook promotional coupon code is being offered by Facebook to users of AllFacebook.com. Facebook is solely responsible for all questions or issues related to the use such codes or Facebook Ads.”

10 Killer Titles That Will Provoke Your Facebook Fans