Carol Lynn's Marketing Insights

About Carol Lynn Rivera

Carol Lynn Rivera began her career as an educator and program developer for several private schools in New York and New Jersey. With a dual Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Education and a Master's in Education, she helped to architect programs in startup schools for both full day and after school enrichment programs. Her passion for education and for acting as an advocate for those under her care transcended industries when, in 1999, she and husband Ralph Rivera founded Rahvalor Interactive, a creative services and marketing company, where she shifted her focus from the psychology of education to the psychology of marketing.

In addition to acting as Rahvalor's project manager, Carol Lynn manages search and social marketing programs for both B2B and B2C customers where she enjoys being able to engage in her second passion: writing. As a search and social marketer, she provides search friendly copywriting and editing services, writes for blogs and manages Facebook fan pages and Twitter accounts for customers across a variety of industries.

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Listen To Your Mother: Advice For Making The Sale On Your Website

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This series of tips and practical advice was born one evening some months ago during a phone call with my mother. As she complained about the umpteenth thing that had irritated her that day, she digressed into chatter about her attempt to buy a gift online. It didn’t go very well, because it turned out that every time my mother “clicked to enlarge” a photo in order to see the product more clearly, another photo popped up – of exactly the same size. My mother never did make a purchase on that site, because tiny photo after tiny photo with mockingly inadequate “enlarge” functions drove her away. I share this with you now because my mother could have been your customer. Find out why it’s important to pay attention to small details on your website if you want to turn visitors into customers.

14 Ways To Make The Sale Instead Of Giving It To The Competition Tip 14: Give It Away

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If you’re reading this, it means you care about your business and are willing to do what it takes to make it great. This tip is not for the faint-of-heart. It’s not for the lazy, the unmotivated or anyone who just wants the paycheck and the ability to go home afterwards. It’s for those of you who – like me – take personal responsibility for and pride in making your businesses succeed. What I’m about to tell you to do may seem counterintuitive to the very idea of running a business but if you’ve got the passion, dedication and expertise, it can be the fastest path to winning loyal customers. I’m about to tell you how giving away your best ideas can win you more loyal customers than you could’ve imagined.

SEO For Busy People: Easy Ways To Use Keywords To Hook Search Engines And Get Better Listings

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Think of a search engine as a hungry fish and your website as a hook. What dumb fish is going to chomp on your hook without good bait? Your keywords are the bait, but you’ve also got to load it up properly. If you went fishing and threw some bait in a tree and hid a bit under some rocks, how successful do you think that fishing trip would be? You’ve got to get the bait on the hook, and that’s what this article is about. If you read my last article about how to choose keywords for SEO, you should have a stack of them just sitting around waiting to be used. Now I’m going to tell you how to use them to hook a search engine.

5-Minute SEO: Learn How To Choose Kick-A$$ Keywords In Less Time Than It Takes To Drink Your Morning Coffee

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Everyone can understand the basic building blocks of a search optimized website. And there is nothing more basic and more important to SEO than the keyword. It hardly matters how brilliant your site is, how perfectly coded, designed and configured if it uses no keywords – or the wrong keywords. But how do you know which keywords to use? How do you begin to guess what people are searching for? And with all the garbled industry mumbo jumbo about things like long-tail keywords, where do you even start? Read this kick-start guide to choosing keywords that makes it as easy as drinking your morning coffee.

Before You Build Your Website Or Tackle A Redesign, Read This: How To Do It Right The First Time

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Whether you don’t have a website at all, are ready for a makeover or upgrade, or went down the “my son’s friend’s father’s nephew knows a guy who knows web design” route only to regret it later, I’m about to share with you some practical insight into the reality of building a website. Find out how to do it right – the first time – before you spend your valuable time and money.

The (Second) Biggest Marketing Mistake You Could Be Making (And How To Fix It)

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You may recall I published “The Biggest Marketing Mistake” a few days ago. No sooner had that article gone live than I had a conversation with a friend who conveyed interest in doing some email marketing. I offered to help but there were a few problems; namely, my friend didn’t have an email list. I almost regretted publishing the Biggest Marketing Mistake, thinking that this new infraction was truly the worst way to conduct business. So I’ve given the number 2 spot to this mistake: failing to build your email list at every opportunity. Find out more about why it matters and how to build your email list (the right way).

5 Ways To Market Your Business Online On Zero Dollars A Day

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If you’re short on budget you’ve still got something you can invest in the ongoing success of your business: time. With time, dedication and some know-how, you can get your business in front of people and attract prospects and new customers without investing a single cent in professional marketing services or advertising. The most shoestring startup can generate business by leveraging the power of web, search and social marketing with only the investment of your time. Here are 5 ways to market your business online with no budget at all.

The Biggest Marketing Mistake You Could Be Making (And What To Do About It)

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I’m about to make your life easier and your marketing better by sharing one of the most overlooked, underrated yet most powerful allies you have as a web, search and social marketer: content. If you’re not creating, using and promoting content as part of your marketing strategy, it’s such a huge mistake that you should stop what you’re doing and start counting those lost dollars now. Here’s what makes it so important and how you can turn what might sound like a scary concept into your business’s new best friend.

The Inconvenience Of Convenience: How To Defend Against Online Theft

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In light of this week’s attack on Zappos’ customer database, it’s a good idea as a consumer to revisit your online security and as a business to revisit that of your customers. Instead of losing sleep over the possibility of stolen information, just know that one day, it may happen to you. The best thing you can do is be prepared and be smart. Here are a couple of security measures you can take right now.

5 Easy And Actionable Ways To Engage Fans On Your Facebook Business Page

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You have a Facebook business page, and now every day, along with making sure the phone calls get made and the to-do items get crossed off the list, you’ve got to figure out what to put in that horrible empty status box. Fear not, faithful Facebooker! There are strategies you can use to engage even the most reticent fans. Here are five you can try for yourself.