CityScoop: United States (Local Business) News http://cityscoop.us CityScoop is a United States local business news channel. We recruit and screen for only the best local businesses in each city to write about what's going on in their industry & company. Tue, 08 May 2012 07:00:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Mix-UPs – East Bay Area Business Networking Events Now Promoted by San Leandro, CA Chamber of Commerce http://cityscoop.us/blog/mix-ups-east-bay-area-business-networking-events-now-promoted-by-san-leandro-ca-chamber-of-commerce/ http://cityscoop.us/blog/mix-ups-east-bay-area-business-networking-events-now-promoted-by-san-leandro-ca-chamber-of-commerce/#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:41:36 +0000 John Kitts http://cityscoop.us/?p=2978

It’s official.  Mix-UPs have been relaunched and now we have some reach.  Our events are now published on the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce’s website and emailed to their members monthly.  We’ re working to join with a few other local Chambers of Commerce and expect to be on their calendars by next month’s mixer, Arpil 4th, 2012.  We are working with our local Chambers to help them keep building their enormous value in their membership.  All local participating Chamber members attend all our networking events free of admission.  If you think your Chamber would be interested in a similar local event please contact us at info@cityscoop.us.

We have an official meetup page where you can register for free and get reminders about upcoming meetings, as well as see what other people have attended our mixers in the past.  Click the link below to visit our page.

http://www.meetup.com/mixups/

Our first turn out was a success as we wanted to have a chance to work out the kinks.  Now with a clear goal in mind we will be working to build this group into one of the most fun, rewarding and effective networking events in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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]]> http://cityscoop.us/blog/mix-ups-east-bay-area-business-networking-events-now-promoted-by-san-leandro-ca-chamber-of-commerce/feed/ 0 San Leandro, CA Chamber of Commerce Joins Forces with CityScoop – New Affinity Program http://cityscoop.us/blog/san-leandro-ca-chamber-of-commerce-joins-forces-with-cityscoop-new-affinity-program/ http://cityscoop.us/blog/san-leandro-ca-chamber-of-commerce-joins-forces-with-cityscoop-new-affinity-program/#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:17:30 +0000 John Kitts http://cityscoop.us/?p=2967 CityScoop is based in San Leandro, California, in the East Bay Area, just northwest of Silicon Valley.  I was born and raised here in San Leandro and I’ve always though of it, for the most part, as being a larger city that often goes unnoticed.  Which I always found to be a little bit odd because if you want to live in the Bay Area, San Leandro is a great place.  It’s probably the most centrally located city in the entire Bay Area.  It’s only a 20 minute drive to San Francisco, San Jose, Livermore, Berkeley and Walnut Creek, CA. 

But things are a changing and now we’re an up and coming city with a whole new plan.   

One thing that’s changing is the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce.  They are working to revamp their model and become one of the most technologically savvy Chambers in the United States.   They have a whole slew of new programs, educational resources, events and more.  One part of their new membership program is to help market, promote and grow their member’s businesses with what they call their Affinity Program, an exclusive service provider network. 

CityScoop was approached by the San Leandro Chamber to be the provider for search engine ranking services with our Internet advertising program.  Their affinity program is designed to screen and sort through companies and find products and services that can help their members grow their businesses, get leads, manage clients and employees, save money and spend more time and money, efficiently.  

As a part of their Affinity Program CityScoop offers San Leandro Chamber of Commerce members a great discount.   We are approved and backed by the Chamber which helps us to grow our business more rapidly.  A more rapid growth leads to a better economy of scale and so we can offer a large savings to their members. 

Our offer is a $150 savings on our setup fee.  CityScoop’s normal pricing is $29.99 a month for our subscription fee plus a one-time setup fee of $200.  San Leandro Chamber members pay only $50 for their setup fee plus the normal monthly subscription fee.  This is just one of the ways the San Leandro Chamber is working to help their members grow their businesses in an ever-changing marketplace.  Check out their website for more great savings and discounts.

The San Leandro Chamber also has a column here on CityScoop that has just been launched.  They will be regularly posting about upcoming events, announcements, membership benefits and their members as well. 

You can visit their CityScoop blog at the link below:

http://cityscoop.us/sanleandroca-chamber/

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]]> http://cityscoop.us/blog/san-leandro-ca-chamber-of-commerce-joins-forces-with-cityscoop-new-affinity-program/feed/ 0 The Tortoise and The Hare – Get Your Business to the Top by NOT Stopping Your Blogging http://cityscoop.us/blog/the-tortoise-and-the-hare-get-your-business-to-the-top-by-not-stopping-your-blogging/ http://cityscoop.us/blog/the-tortoise-and-the-hare-get-your-business-to-the-top-by-not-stopping-your-blogging/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:30:49 +0000 John Kitts http://cityscoop.us/?p=2905 The Hare was faster, but the Tortoise won the race.

Blogging on your website with the goal to get leads is a lot like a race.  It’s a race against your competition, a race with the search engines, a race to keep up with the growing Internet itself, and it’s a race against time.  It’s also a test of will and goal setting.

Everyone hates blogging.  Just about everyone anyway.  I, like most, find it hard to get myself “in the mood” to blog.  I probably need to get Dragon, the voice recognition software.  That would probably take some of the intimidation out of it.  But this is probably the most important part of the process because it’s easy to forget, get lazy or just give up.  This race is a marathon, not a sprint, so it’s easy to become discouraged.  The rewards sometimes don’t come for quite a while and it’s sometimes hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  But blogging really is a good way to advertise your business.

Before the Internet advertising was more of a shotgun blast approach where you threw money against the wall and hoped 3-5% would stick.  It was an easier method that didn’t require much of your time, but did cost a lot of money.  Then the Internet changed the way we advertise and in such a great way.  Instead of marketing to a general audience we advertise to targeted markets.  People search for you and self-qualify themselves by the words they type into the search engines.  This translates to lower cost advertising with better results because money is spent only on advertising to people that are interested prospects.  Sounds great right?

Not so fast.  Most people are thinking “I don’t want to blog.”  So the problem has arisen with this new advertising model that people are lazy!  Cut and dry.  Every business owner wants to get to the point where they don’t have to do anything and the business runs itself.  It’s the American Dream.  But the problem is 90% or so of local business leads come from the Internet.  So a business owner should spend 90% of their lead generation budget and time on building their Internet presence.  If your business is doing well and you’re not advertising on the Internet think about how much business you’re not getting. 

You might think, “why not hire a ghost writer?”  Not so fast.  The quality of the content is very important so you can’t just hire someone to write about your industry.  They don’t have your expertise and knowledge.  It might work for a little while but not very long.  The search engines can tell if people like the content you put out so it’s important to make your articles interesting, helpful, educational, etc.  Your knowledge and expertise will keep you on top of the Internet longer than anything else so don’t cheat or cut corners. 

Most of all don’t get lazy.

Put a task for blogging on your calendar.  Schedule it in and think of it as part of your job description.  Don’t title it ‘blogging’ title it ‘lead generation.’  It sounds better and reminds you of why you’re spending the time blogging.

Also, consistency is key.  Frequent, consistent articles at least once a week are best.  Sometimes when business is going well it’s easy to get lazy and take a nap under the tree like the hare in the image.  That’s when the tortoise sneaks up on you.  If you’re consistently blogging and still aren’t reaching the top you might need an Internet Marketing Company who can transform you into the hare.  There are ways to build a website and promote yourself on the Internet that can give you an advantage over your competition and make you more like the hare. 

Then all you need to do is not stop.

A good example of what happens when the hare doesn’t stop is a sign company in the San Francisco Bay Area, Signworks, Inc (http://signworks.us.com/).  They have a website that is built for ranking on the search engines.  They’ve been consistently blogging articles about the jobs they work on at their website as well as on CityScoop.us, a local business news website.  They have a powerful website and link building tool which makes them like the hare.  And they haven’t stopped blogging either.  As a result they rank for just about every industry related search in their area, the East Bay Area.  It takes time but when you build a presence like SignWorks has you get leads.  Over time you build up a portfolio with pictures of your work.  And that is what ultimately sells your prospect.  When someone searches for “sign company east bay area” you find SignWorks.  People trust websites that rank at the top and it does help motivate the prospect to buy, but it’s not until they see your work with their eyes do they become truly motivated to hire you.

To sum it up, most new business comes from the Internet.  Blogging gets you to the top without paying a fortune.  Start now and don’t stop because there is no end to this race.

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]]> http://cityscoop.us/blog/the-tortoise-and-the-hare-get-your-business-to-the-top-by-not-stopping-your-blogging/feed/ 0 Featured Columnist: SignWorks – An East Bay Area, California Sign Business http://cityscoop.us/blog/featured-columnist-signworks-an-east-bay-area-california-sign-business/ http://cityscoop.us/blog/featured-columnist-signworks-an-east-bay-area-california-sign-business/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:47:12 +0000 John Kitts http://cityscoop.us/?p=2818 SignWorks has been writing about the Signage News in the East Bay Area for over 2 years now.  Their tenure as a CityScoop columnist dates back to November 2, 2009.  They’ve done an exceptional job making sure to keep up with their article writing and publishing quakity articles with images and good formatting.  And the efforts are paying off.

By providing content and expertise to our news channel (CityScoop), SignWorks, and all our other columnists, create a network of industry specific RSS feeds that helps Google to connect the top businesses in the world with the people that are searching locally for services. 

SignWorks has been writing content and feeding it to Google for over 2 years and “their relationship” is starting to grow strong.  After building a large content base on CityScoop and then creating a website that is search engine friendly and finally adding a presence on the Social Media channels SignWorks has cemented themselves as one of the most popular, accountable and credible companies in their market.  If you search for a ‘sign company in the bay area‘ you’ll find SignWorks.  If you search on Google for anything close to “signs” or “sign companies” or “vehicle wraps” or “ada braille signs” or just about anything to do with signs in San Leandro, CA (their home town), as well as in the east bay area, you’ll find SignWorks.

But showing up on top of the search engines doesn’t make you a good company.  It may mean you get traffic.  But traffic does mean much if it deosn’t amount to any business.  By publishing content about the projects they complete it gives the customer or prospective shopper an opportunity to see inside the business.  It’s like providing a window into your business so that your prospects can see your qualitty of work.  By adding photos like before and after shots it helps the interested buyer to get an idea of the company’s skill level and helps them to picture the same service or product for their business.

Further, creating a social media presence and encouraging your happy clients to write reviews about your company helps to create a level of trust in the market that can turn your traffic or leads into deals.  In an Internet world where consumers like to research on their own and buy on their own the best thing you can do is to showcase your best work and make your business transparant.  CityScoop can help you find the prospect, but you’ve got sell them!

 

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]]> http://cityscoop.us/blog/featured-columnist-signworks-an-east-bay-area-california-sign-business/feed/ 0 Article Writing Idea: Industry Related Current Events http://cityscoop.us/blog/article-writing-idea-industry-related-current-events/ http://cityscoop.us/blog/article-writing-idea-industry-related-current-events/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:52:15 +0000 John Kitts http://cityscoop.us/?p=2811 If there’s something new and great going on in your industry write about it! You can talk about anything that’s current or past information.  But there is a wrong way to do it.  You can’t republish anyone’s content. You can make it your own content by putting it into your own words though.

If you Google something and copy and paste it into your you can get busted with the duplicate content penalty.  This is because the search engines don’t like copies of the same information they only like the original content, story, news, etc. 

But you can put that news into your own words and write about it. If you can’t think of anything try Google-ing for some news and then rewrite your own version of the story. Or research to find out what everyone else is saying on the Internet and provide your opinion along with it.

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]]> http://cityscoop.us/blog/article-writing-idea-industry-related-current-events/feed/ 0 Article Writing Idea: Talk About Your Background – Tell Your Story – CityScoop http://cityscoop.us/blog/article-writing-idea-talk-about-your-background-tell-your-story-cityscoop/ http://cityscoop.us/blog/article-writing-idea-talk-about-your-background-tell-your-story-cityscoop/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:32:52 +0000 John Kitts http://cityscoop.us/?p=2794 A great thing to do for one of the first articles in your blog is to tell your story. Tell people about the industry you’re in, how you got there, and maybe some of the obstacles you had to overcome to get where you are today.

This would also be a good article to include a testimonial. As you illustrate your past to your readers you can tell them about a few of the jobs that you’ve had that had sparked pivotal changes in your career perhaps, sighting specific instances. Adding a story about a happy customer would be a great way to end the article.

If you don’t feel that you have a big story to tell, then maybe ask a few friends and colleagues what they can tell you about you. And if telling your story just isn’t your thing, then keep it short and sweet or just write about something else.  Try listing your education, past jobs, etc, like a resume.  Maybe include a photo of yourself?  It’s up to you!

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]]> http://cityscoop.us/blog/article-writing-idea-talk-about-your-background-tell-your-story-cityscoop/feed/ 0 CityScoop Article Writing Tip – Write a Short Series of Articles http://cityscoop.us/blog/cityscoop-article-writing-tip-write-a-short-series-of-articles/ http://cityscoop.us/blog/cityscoop-article-writing-tip-write-a-short-series-of-articles/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:28:08 +0000 John Kitts http://cityscoop.us/?p=2792 You can write about anything in a short series. Create a top 10 or top 5 of something. For example, the top 10 things to consider when hiring someone of your profession. Title it 10 Things To Consider When Hirig A (BLANK) In (Your City, ST).

10 Things To Consider When Hiring A Family Law Attorney In Oakland, CA

10 Things To Consider When Hiring A Pool Maintenance Service In Newark, NJ

10 Common Questions From A Professional Residential Electrician in Houston, TX

ETC…

____________________________________________________________________________

Step 1 is to create a first article with some introductory text and a list of the top 10 reasons, things, or ideas to consider. Simply introduce your series of articles and explain the goal of the series. Each week you’ll feature a new part in the series and over the course of 2.5 months you’ll publish that series. Use the forward dating function to schedule your articles so they automatically publish to your blog at a later date. This will save you lots of time!

When titling your article, follow the format below and shown in the above examples as well:

10 Steps In Changing Out Your Light Bulb | Tips From An Electrician In St Louis, MO

In this series of articles we’ll cover 10 important questions that you should address when hiring a pool maintenance service company. If you have any questions that you’d like answered that didn’t make this list, please fill out the form below and we’ll make sure to include it!

1. What areas do you serve?

2. How much does your service cost?

3. Are you licensed?

4. Do you do commercial or residential or both?

ETC…

At the end of the article you can put a call to action quote, like “Mention that you found us on CityScoop for 10% off. 555-555-5555.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Step 2 is done after you’ve finished your 10 part series. Return to the original article with all 10 points list and link each one its respective article. Now you’ve got a great little resource. Send client to this page. Maybe even include it in your email signature? Place a link to it on the home page of your CityScoop website, or maybe even your personal website? Use it how you like!

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]]> http://cityscoop.us/blog/cityscoop-article-writing-tip-write-a-short-series-of-articles/feed/ 0 Internet Marketing Tip – The Power is in the NETWORK http://cityscoop.us/blog/internet-marketing-tip-the-power-is-in-the-network/ http://cityscoop.us/blog/internet-marketing-tip-the-power-is-in-the-network/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:48:39 +0000 John Kitts http://cityscoop.us/?p=2780 All of our CityScoop sponsors form a network of its own – a business network full of highly experience professionals that really know their industry in and out. There are many business referral networks in the world, but none that utilize the Internet well. If you’re a member of your local Chamber of Commerce you will know that you have a business networking mixer about once a month. But with the Internet as a facilitator, you can network any time and catch up at the mixer. So we encourage all of our CityScoop experts to read what other CityScoop experts are writing. There can only be one business per Industry in each city in the United States, so there is no direct competition. You might find someone that compliments your business and you can refer business to each other. Once you find someone on CityScoop that is local that you might want to meet you’ll be able to go to a CityScoop sponsored local networking meeting and get to know each other in person. Currently we have one mixer in Castro Valley, CA that is the test pilot. We plan to form a group in every major city in the United States.

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]]> http://cityscoop.us/blog/internet-marketing-tip-the-power-is-in-the-network/feed/ 0 Did you know? We Guarantee 1st Page Search Engine Rankings http://cityscoop.us/blog/did-you-know-we-guarantee-1st-page-search-engine-rankings/ http://cityscoop.us/blog/did-you-know-we-guarantee-1st-page-search-engine-rankings/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:38:05 +0000 John Kitts http://cityscoop.us/?p=2776 We GUARANTEE 1 thing……………………….actual results.

It seems like every company promises 1st page results on the search engines. But nobody has any examples of where!!! Submitting your site and changing your keywords might make it so you can search and be found by your name. But that won’t bring new customers.

We guarantee first page rankings for industry related searches where people search becuase they have a need for your services.

Our clients are experts in their industry and write a column for our LOCAL NEWS CHANNEL – CityScoop. With all our combined content our site is so strong we can guarantee to rank you on the first page of nearly every major search engine and you get all the leads!!!

We work with you on your personal website to optimize it with META tags as well as on-site content optimization, header placement and link building. The result is: we help you build a HUGE Internet presence. Click Here. Look for 12 Point SignWorks. Easy to find them right? If someone searches for your product or service in your city do you come up? Like this? What about other cities?

Click the links below:

EXAMPLE: POOL DOCTORS – We ran one search, “pool repair company east bay” on 12 search engines to demonstrate how our system works with almost every search engine!

There’s No Limit To The Number Of Searches!

EXAMPLE: SIGNWORKS, INC. – This list is to demonstrate that you can rank for every way to search for your business! Every time you write about a new topic you’ll start to rank for those searches too! There’s no limit!

We can help every business type!

Call today for more examples of someone in your industry!

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]]> http://cityscoop.us/blog/did-you-know-we-guarantee-1st-page-search-engine-rankings/feed/ 0 CityScoop’s Marketing is Directed to the Consumer, Not Businesses http://cityscoop.us/blog/cityscoops-marketing-is-directed-to-the-consumer-not-businesses/ http://cityscoop.us/blog/cityscoops-marketing-is-directed-to-the-consumer-not-businesses/#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 23:08:57 +0000 John Kitts http://cityscoop.us/?p=2768

City Scoop is a website geared towards consumers as well as businesses. We are creating a free resource website for the local communities of America and also a place to post local happenings. It will eventually be a place to find out what’s going on in your town, find emergency and other important contact information, post information about upcoming events, as well as find local expert help.  We want CityScoop to be the world’s largest local news channel or newspaper if you will.  It will be 100% fee to the public to access a lot of great info in one place.  We will be adding a classifieds section llike Craigslist but it will have a lot of cool features that Cragslist doesn’t.

There are two sides to the CityScoop equation: local businesses and local consumers. Local consumers can come to CityScoop to post things to our forums, find out what’s great and interesting about United States cities, and also find local deals, specials, and printable coupons offered by our local business sponsors.

Local businesses can promote themselves on CityScoop by offering free information and expertise in the form of help guides, free tips, do it yourself guides, and special discounts and promotions. Our business sponsors get new clients and our consumers get free tips and price breaks. It’s a win-win.

And in order to promote CityScoop to the public, we will be launching an advertising campaign to promote CityScoop on various channels including TV and Radio. The message is if someone needs to find a local expert or local info, then CityScoop is the place. “Get The Scoop On Your City.”

It is our goal to create a recognizable brand name with CityScoop, in order to provide our readers with great tips and great deals, and to also create business opportunities for our content producers. By driving more and more traffic to the CityScoop website you will notice that your leads and traffic will continue to rise as our popularity continues to grow.

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