soulati.com

Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

How To Get Capital Against Online Advertising Futures

By

The-Bean-Soulati.jpg

By Jayme Soulati–“The Bean”

This is a story about business opportunity for those successfully monetizing via online advertising who are  interested in earning capital from that revenue stream.

I received a cold pitch, answered the phone and ended up agreeing to do this Q&A with Hanna Kassis, founder of OAREX Capital Markets, Inc. The most amazing thing about this guy is he’s in third year law school and launched this startup (during his first year) with the most zany business model I’ve ever heard. That’s why he gets the nod below; he deserves a smile today for all his hard work dialing for dollars.

And, this is what he wrote to me after our call, “Jayme, it was a pleasure talking to you today. It’s rare to just find a number or contact on some website and reach out to them and actually receive a moment of their time. Thank you for that.”

Hmm, I think he should be in PR. I love that he spelled my name right; no one does that even though it’s right there in front of them. Actually, Hanna found my blog post, Who’s Monetizing Online? republished on Steamfeed and reached out to the folks I referenced in that piece. Then he reached out to me; however, he didn’t know I wrote the article or that I was a professional award-winning blogger. Hmm, maybe he shouldn’t be in PR (heh).

All that aside, I’m impressed; I hope you will be, too.

Interview with Jayme Soulati & Hanna Kassis, OAREX Capital

What is OAREX and what do you guys do?

We are an “online advertising revenue exchange” to help digital entrepreneurs take their businesses to the next level by providing them with capital based on future advertising potential.

How does this work?

Digital properties like websites, or any other digital property where ad space has been sold, have a future value — the advertising dollars that will be collected in the future.

Faced with a need or desire for capital, digital business owners have a few options. They can take out a loan, sell equity in their business, or sit around and wait for future advertising revenues to roll in. OAREX provides a fourth solution by allowing digital business owners to sell their future ad revenues in exchange for lump sum cash.

Are you lenders? Do you give your clients loans?

No, we are not lenders, nor do we take an equity stake in the businesses to which we provide capital. It’s completely risk-free.

What does risk free mean?

Risk free means we guarantee website owners a certain percentage of their expected future ad revenues. We generally pay 30-75 cents on the dollar (thus, guaranteeing future revenues today) and take the chance that the website doesn’t generate as much in advertising revenues as expected. We take the risk away from the website owner and assume 100% of it, meaning, if the website crashed while we owned the revenue streams, we would be the ones to suffer, not the website owner.

What kinds of contracts do you offer?

We purchase online advertising revenues for the next three, six, nine or 12 months. Once it expires, it’s as though the client never had anything to do with us, meaning they owe us no debt and maintain the same ownership percentage they had when we first met (assuming they haven’t changed their position while we had a contract with them).

So how does OAREX get paid?

During the terms of the contractual agreement, we collect payments from our clients after advertisers pay them. It’s really a good faith transaction; we’ve been extremely cautious about who we do business with.

Isn’t there a moral hazard, i.e., someone takes your money and then they quit blogging.

Good question. The answer is no, and here’s why: assume we purchase six months worth of future ad revenues for a website, and then the website quits blogging or producing content or they shut it down (though in our contract with our clients there is an obligation on their part to do exactly what they have been doing in terms of “operations”). Naturally, if they did this, though, the revenues would decrease. We may lose our money or not collect what we expected. When the contract ends and they start receiving ad revenue again in the seventh month, they won’t be earning anything either. So really we position ourselves with our clients so that its win-win or lose-lose. If we go down, they go down. Thankfully, we haven’t encountered anything like that, but it won’t be a surprise to us should it ever happen. Every business has bad customers they have to deal with.

Who is your target market?

Broadly speaking, anyone who has sold advertising space on an intangible medium. Specifically, website owners, app developers, YouTube channel owners and even Twitter account owners. There are different risks and factors associated with each of these, but they all have one thing in common — present value based on advertising revenues. We can offer the same service to all of them — help them realize the present value today via lump sum cash.

How do you know how much money they’re going to earn?

Well, we don’t. It’s sophisticated speculation. Generally, I take all of their website data, both analytics and earnings, and plug it into a model I’ve built in Excel that calculates various averages and growth rates. Then I consider qualitative factors such as frequency with which they publish, type of content, seasonality (e.g., we have a client that blogs about video game reviews, and hits tend to rise pre-holidays on those kinds of websites). All of these factors boil down to our offer price, which is the starting point of negotiations between us and the potential client.

Who are you?

I graduated with an undergraduate degree in accounting in 2008, and immediately pursued a masters degree in financial economics from Youngstown State University. This gave me enough hours to sit for the CPA exam in Ohio. I am a licensed CPA in Ohio, but don’t do anything in the way of practicing accounting. My first job out of college was in public accounting for about eight months, then I left that job to run a U.S. Congressman’s campaign. That job gave me experience and skills to be resourceful and operate an entity. I also taught economics at YSU as an adjunct professor for an academic year. After that I left to the West Bank of Palestine and had a stint with the Palestine Stock Exchange as a financial analyst and translator. At the moment, I am in law school and expect to graduate in May of 2014. I started OAREX after my first semester of law school and here we are today. The Youngstown Business Incubator supports our business.

Reach Hanna Kassis, founder of OAREX at hanna at oarex dot com.

Blogging Is No Longer Enough

By

 

desk-laptops.jpg

Credit: Cision

Have you noticed your corporate blog may be getting fewer comments? How’s traffic in general and what about that bounce rate?

Blogging by most is regarded as a one off, something that’s done to write about topics and position you and your company as a content authority (or maybe “context” authority). Companies that use blogs as a public relations strategy understand the importance of owned media for overall integrated marketing.

Today, however, there are factors contributing to a blog’s one dimension. Before we understand what that means, we have to know how you regard success:

• What goals did you set up for your company blog?
• How are you measuring against those goals?

• Are you watching analytics, listening on Trackur and earning comments?
• Have you made it a goal to build a community?

As a professional blogger, you likely are incorporating syndication and blogging automation tools to help amplify your content to a variety of other bloggers, channels, portals, and apps. Well, are you?

When you share your blog post to Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Tumblr, it provides opportunity for content to be in the stream along with a plethora of others’ content. There’s no guarantee people will open the link and read. Sharing only on social media channels becomes very one dimensional for a professional blogger.
So, what’s the solution?

Syndication Automation & Marketing Automation

About 18 months ago, I began to hear the term marketing automation more and more. With disdain, I wrote about the lack of authenticity occurring on the blogosphere. Today, I fully understand the need for marketing automation tools and, more so, for syndication automation tools. Professional bloggers who may be solopreneurs (like me) or corporate blogs with a team of excellent writers from public relations, cannot boost owned media without help from syndication automation tools.

Triberr

Since the inception of Triberr several years ago, we who have been on board since the floodgates opened have watched creativity spur innovation. The co-founders have stopped at nothing to ensure its platform is a place where bloggers can share content, build tribes, cascade content across multiple social media channels, and leave comments for any blog post while remaining on the Triberr dashboard. Triberr’s reblogging feature allows content from others’ blogs to be reblogged on yours. That means content can be posted every day, and you can write as infrequently as you’d like for your own blog.

RSS Feed

I can bet that few understand the true value of an RSS feed. Every single blog should have a reputable syndication partner, like Feedblitz, to publish blog content to subscribers, on others’ blogs, in portals, in a community of writers, in Triberr, etc.
Without an RSS feed, that orange icon usually in the upper right of your blog’s sidebar, your content goes nowhere. It stays on your website and no one knows it’s there.
RSS feeds allow folks outside of your network to pick up your content via the feed and publish blog posts when they like. When you begin to write really good content, the RSS feed is richer and others become interested in having that content handy.

Blogging Community Like SteamFeed

When you write for an esteemed blogging community like SteamFeed, you get the added bonus of interacting with professionals interested in blowing up the ‘sphere with high-quality content. You also are assured of having decent community managers who help you with deadlines, manage your content, are creating ideas to leverage your expertise beyond just writing, and generally are helping position your brand as authoritative and you as an influencer.

HubSpot

I am a digital marketer with HubSpot. In fact, I’m in HubSpot school. When you have a blog, you need to push it to the next level. It’s OK to write to your heart’s content; however, are you writing to your buyer? Are you adding calls to action in your sidebar and building your email list to also build a book of business online? The blog forms the very crux of digital marketing gold; this owned media provides the content and authority to lure folks in from around the Interwebz and download your content, ebooks, invitations to events, and more. HubSpot is a total solution for email marketing, list building, connectivity between landing pages, calls to action, content, and lead generation from the top of the funnel to the bottom.

Cision Content Marketing Suite

Cision is a provider of public relations tools for public relations professionals and many others. It also has been creating new innovative tools for companies interested in amplifying content. They have a social news room and now, even better, the company is touting a new content amplification suite.
Bloggers can amplify content onto online portals like CNN, Time, U.S. News & World Report, Huffington Post, and many other high-branded sites. The boost from lowly corporate website to nationally branded media is gold.
These are marketing automation tools and give bloggers ways to think differently about why they blog, for whom, and where that content should get published or posted.
At the end of the day, really, we have to ask, “What is the Future of Content?”

This post originally appeared on Steamfeed.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

E-Book Pricing Help Needed!

By

jayme-soulati-author.jpg

Jayme Soulati holds her new book prior to presenting at New South Digital Marketing Conference

My second book, Message Mapping: How to Sizzle External Communications with  a #RockHot Tool for Leaders, just went into design at midnight, maybe it was already Monday morning. I can’t be sure. I’ll do pre-sales this week, once I develop the digital marketing aspect of this offering.

Publishing a book, whether a touch and feel book with actual paper pages, an electronic version for Kindle and other readers, or an E-book that resides on a website somewhere (not Amazon), takes time, commitment, patience, and perseverance.

What’s Your Goal When Writing a Book?

You have to ask yourself about your goals when writing a book. My first book was to earn the experience, walk the talk, learn the ropes, and also establish myself as a published author. It worked! I accomplished these goals; yet, the marketing of this book has fallen by the wayside.

The most taxing aspect of book publishing, however, is pricing.

Factors to consider when Pricing A Book

  • Is your book specialized and are there few of these written?
  • Is the topic something people need and want for their business?
  • Is it different than what’s being sold on Amazon right now?
  • Who is the author? Someone with professional experience?
  • Will it really teach something you don’t already know?

Help Price My EBook, Please!

When you use a hybrid publisher, as I did for my first book, Writing with Verve on the Blogging Journey, available on Amazon in Kindle or softcover, the publisher gets a cut and so does Amazon. At the end of the day, when people purchase the book for $12.95, I may receive $4 from that total.

This second book is strictly a business book. At last count, it’s 80 pages and growing. It provides detail about how to message map, why message mapping is important, who can benefit, and so much more.

There is a message map I build step by step for a fictitious company, too.

I also provide an actual message mapping template as well as tools in the book I recommend considering.

Table of Contents

 

Introduction
Section I: About Messaging & Message Maps
Who Needs a Message Map?
Who Uses a Message Map?
Defining a Message Map
Purpose of Message Maps
Benefits of Message Mapping
PR Messaging vs. Marketing Messaging
Messaging Maps Are Not Mind Maps
PR Messaging vs. Storytelling
Tool Alert! Clipsi
Crisis Communications & Messaging

Section II: Hands On with Message Maps
Steps in the Message Mapping Process
Company Goal Setting
Set Internal Point Person
Consider a Facilitator
Vet Facilitator’s Credentials
Sign Non-Disclosure Agreement
Advance Preparation
Set Expectations
Draft Questions for Point Person
Invite Leadership
The Session
Messaging Draft 1: Organizing the Messages
Messaging Draft 2: The Master Draft
Messaging Draft 3: The Last Edit
Finalizing the Map

Section III: How to Message Map
The Message Map for Company X
Training Users with Message Maps
Timeline for Message Maps
Template for a Message Map

Section IV: Blurbs & Contact
Leading Up to This Book
About Jayme Soulati

How much should I charge?

  • Would you pay $22?
  • Would you pay $18?
  • Would you pay $16?
  • Or, what would be an appropriate price for this E-book based on your reaction?

When you look around at prices for other books, the prices hover in this range. When someone considers an eBook for purchase; however, then the price seems to differ.

Branding Versus Monetizing A Blog

By

coupons.jpgThere’s a solid distinction between branding yourself via a blog and monetizing a blog. In various conversations of late, I’ve grown to understand that difference and would like to share here.

Before I do, let me also share that I’m a late blogger bloomer. There are many, many others doing this in their sleep and who may also have the privilege of surrounding themselves with a team of accomplished experts.

As a core public relations solo professional, my skill set is in earned media, owned media and shared media – not digital marketing. That, in HubSpot school, I’ve had to learn on my own.

It’s resonating.

The goal of any professional blogger is residual income; earning cash via a blog on a consistent basis until you become rich, rich, rich!

Monetization Is Elusive

And, this quest is so very elusive.

When you first jump in to blogging it is not and never can be about monetization.

For the first two solid years, all you’re doing is building a solid brand as an influencer. Perhaps it takes you three years to do that. The goal, even though you never stated it outright, is to earn a reputable brand as a professional blogger so that others pay attention, maybe hire you, and at the very least, they read your meat when you post.

Are you nodding your head? Hope so, because ultimately that brand you’ve powered up contributes to the methodology with which you will eventually monetize.

I’m working on a post I hope to turn into an infographic about what I just mentioned above. It paints the visual timeline of this progression, and sets some expectation (from my experience only) for those in the midst of professional blogging and wondering what’s next.

I’m going to use my friend Tim Bonner again as an example. He was so transparent to share how he has found a way to monetize online. No, I didn’t say he was monetizing his blog! Tim stated clearly that his blog has never made a single English pound. I concur!

My blog is set up to build a brand. Only this year in year three of blogging have calls to action and landing pages been added so peeps can purchase my first book, Writing with Verve on the Blogging Journey.

Back to Tim. As a stay-at-home daddy to two toddlers, Tim has found time to research the best way to earn cash. His first attempt failed, but his second is successful and on the uptick.

Niche Blogging/Specialty Sites

Tim built a niche site (his second) on a topic and product he selected from Click Bank. It’s oriented directly to toddlers about two-to-three years of age (both genders). It’s also a topic Tim has knowledge of and a passion for; thus, he could write about 10 blog posts on the topic and insert said product into the niche site and BAM! After a month of wondering whether this was a bust, traffic began to build and sales happened. Tim’s profit is about $400; nothing to sneeze at as hosting a website costs nothing near that, and Tim’s time is devoted to being a parent and building his online business.

Maybe your niche can be about selling popular movies, cell phone accessories or electronics.

I love Tim’s story, and I do want you to check Tim’s blog out here; he writes about tech and more cool topics – all things he’s learned since being confined to quarters as a dadpreneur.

Do you understand the differentiators here?

Your primary blog will not make money outright; that’s not what it’s for.

Your niche site will; that’s what it’s for. You select a product with which you have a connection and build, test, rebuild, sit back, earn a bit here and there, reset, and gain your stride.

Simple? NO! Nothing is simple.

Either of these avenues – branding and/or monetization take immense commitment. To be successful you need to pull it out from the depths of your toes and work it every single day. People will understand what’s happening because stars are born every day; you just don’t know it’s going to be you until it is!

7 Speaking Tips You Never Heard Before

By

Jayme Soulati holds her new book prior to presenting at New South Digital Marketing Conference

When you build a solid brand via a book or writing a professional blog consistently for a long time, something really #RockHot™  happens.

You get invited to speak and present in front of really cool people. When you’re really accomplished you get to keynote, like Jay Baer who’s traveling the country talking about his new book, .

I have been speaking a lot in the last few years using a variety of mediums:

  • Podcasting with my dear friend and colleague Jon Buscall right , and about a variety of topics mainly small business marketing, my first book and social media leadership.
  • E-learning classes to the University of Tennessee Executive MBA Leadership class featuring a headset and microphone speaking to others on headsets in listen-only mode.
  • To tiny classrooms at local colleges to assist the adjunct professors who teach in their spare time for peanuts.
  • To groups of my peers in workshops and day conferences (where I recently presented on Savvier Social Media Across the Marketing Blend in Louisville right here).

7 Tips About Speaking to Consider

  • Find the Friendly. If you get an opportunity to meet folks in advance prior to your presentation and you can build a quick connection, invite them to sit toward the front of the room. You must zero in on a friendly face when you present. All speakers need a nod of encouragement or a grin at a lame joke to keep the pace and delivery going smoothly.
  • Embrace the Hecklers. Not only are hecklers fearsome for speakers, they are necessary and should sit right in the front row. The last two times I presented to larger crowds, a row of hecklers sat right in front and they laughed where they were supposed to, interjected a question or answer and listened intently. There were a few wise cracks, too; all in the name of support and positivity. (Want to know who the best hecklers are?and
  • Use One Liners to Advantage. Invariably, the audience will shoot something out in response to a speaker’s statement. If it’s someone who has been controlling every presentation, go ahead and shoot something snarky in return IF that’s the tone of your presentation. It can go both ways, so be confident you can pull it off as a presenter.
  • Go Off Script to Connect. Seasoned presenters know their decks by heart and often they talk on the same topic so the content has become second nature. Because many people travel to many conferences and they often get a chance to hear you present more than once, be sure to freshen your content with something new from the audience. That natural connectivity is so important to an audience; especially when you’re listening intently and reincorporating instant commentary into your presentation.
  • Listen to Others’ Presentations. Prior to your session, unless you’re on first, listen to what all the speakers are saying. Better yet, listen to the questions from the audience. You can insert these comments and subjects into your presentation at the last minute. It makes what you’re saying relevant and drills home a more personalized presentation.
  • Insert Tweets. Get the time of your presentation. Get the hashtag for the event. Write tweets and schedule them DURING your presentation so when the audience is ready to tweet something, they will be impressed that you already prepared tweets for them to retweet. (I did this for a recent presentation, and the tweets in response were complimentary.)
  • Put an Ad in the Deck. I invited Trackur to send me an advertisement for my presentation deck, and I built in a segue to that ad. There was a discount for this social media listening tool for attendees, and the ad remains in my deck posted on SlideShare. Smart, eh?

What say you?