Press, Viral and word-of-mouth marketing - Your advise for International Online Shopping Currency Conversion solution start-up

I love what you are doing with the www.MyOrbital.com site. I have been using it for currency information for my blog on global gadget shopping for the past few weeks. Well done with a fine solution to a critical flaw in international e-commerce!

To address your request for advice, and I see you have taken the initiative by inviting other start-ups to join a blog for network & viral marketing, the best possible way is to build from the ground up. If only a few other start-ups or bloggers use your site and link to it (and reciprocate where possible from a blog, never from the main commercial site!), more user eyes will be directed to your site. A network is a very powerful tool for marketing (and other business needs) and this is often the place where the “virus” start to spread. Network Viral/Word-of-Mouth marketing worked fantastic for Google. Then why can a few UK based start-ups not do the same for each other?

You also mention press exposure. There are two forms, self promotion through press releases, which is good to start some news or “buzz”. The other press format is site reviews and articles about a business published by influential and sometimes not so influential bloggers & media reporters. Both are a great base to fuel word-of-mouth marketing and to direct users to your site/business. All you need now are for a few sites, such as www.TheRegister.co.uk or www.TechCrunch.com to report on your new business. Contacting the relevant sites with information on your business or site might work, but most expert bloggers & reporters first want to see some media mention before their attention is captured, then again some actually want to be ahead of the market on what they report on. You can sort yourself out with regards to press releases, just have it professionally written and then submit it through one or two of the various press release distribution services, such as www.Pressbox.co.uk, www.PRweb.com or www.OpenPR.com.

When you feature on a site or your press release is published, make sure to submit it to as many as possible of all the new tagging sites, such as www.digg.com.

You have my thumbs-up and support as a customer of Myorbital.com, and a person who will contribute to your marketing efforts. I also support your start-up community blog proposal and would contribute to it as much as possible.

------------------------
Andrew Jennings

E-commerce & Business Optimisation Consultant
Geek blogger on Gadgets
http://globalgadgets.blogspot.com

A launch press release would be a good start.

Points to bear in mind if you're choosing a press release service;
- Ensure they're strong on editorial and vet every release (we're yet to receive one that doesn't require at least some tweaking!). If your copy has mistakes or is written in the wrong structure/format, journalists will simply bin it. See our tips on writing at http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/services/advice.html
- That they send releases directly and individually addressed to each journalist, and that the release appears to have come from you (so you're establishing your own relationships with journalists). In the US, distribution is predominantly by newswires but this isn't yet the case in the UK.
- That your news is syndicated to news aggregators and online news sites, such as Google News, Yahoo! News, etc. This helps with links to your site and wider distribution. It also means people can find your release via key word searches on major search engines.
- That the press list covers freelance journalists.

We do all the above at www.pressdispensary.co.uk .

Free sites, or sites that only distribute to a list of opt-in journalists, are unlikely to reach the exact journalists you are trying to target. And beware of distributors that use a scatter-gun approach, sending your release to thousands of journalists. If it's not relevant news to the individual journalists, it's considered spam!

------------------------
Press">href="http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk">Press Dispensary

Press release writing and distribution
PR training courses
Free online press office

How to write a press release

Thanks Greg and Andrew for the advise.

Greg can you please e-mail me your contact details. I would like to further discuss your service.

Thank you both again for the very helpfull advice. All of this will be included in the blog I said I will start...coming this weekend. Any more advice and contributions appreciated. (and I will like back to you from the blog

I will post regarding the launch of the blog next week.
------------------------
Jaco Vermeulen
Orbital VX Corporation

www.MyOrbital.com

International Online Shopping Currency Conversion Solutions

I have started with the focused marketing network blog, called The Marketing Network (http://www.myorbital.com/blogs/themarketingnetwork/index.php). Over the next few weeks I will be partnering with a few other blog writers to build an extended network for business solutions and support, focusing on development, programming, creative, business optimisation and financial issues.

You are all invided to post comments, send your suggestions and links. E-mail me yuor marketing ideas and suggestions and I will post them ASAP. I will also link to each individual site that contributes to this blog.

The aim of this blog (and the others that will form part of the network) is to assist start-up businesses, through a network that will provide information, guidance and assistance. With the specific focus on marketing, a bigger network will spread the word a lot faster than a singel effort...lets help each other succeed.

------------------------
Jaco Vermeulen
Orbital VX Corporation

www.MyOrbital.com

International Online Shopping Currency Conversion Solutions