GIVEAWAY OFFER EXPIRED ~ NO LONGER VALID ~ FOR NOTIFICATION OF OTHER SPECIAL OFFERS IN THE FUTURE SUBSCRIBE TO EXECGIFTSBLOG or GROWMAP
Father’s Day 2010 is June 20 in the U.S., U.K. and Canada and September 5 in Australia and New Zealand.
For those not familiar with the whole idea of Word of Mouth or Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) it is nothing new.
People have always shared what they have recently discovered or most appreciate with family, friends and co-workers. Recently I’ve been sharing these really unique stone candles.
Here are some examples:
- We tell our friends about our favorite restaurant, make plans to meet them there or even buy them a meal.
- We show our friends our latest gadgets from iPads to iPhones – Tivo’s success was built almost entirely on WOMM
- We ask them to join us in our favorite Social Networking communities
Bloggers have the perfect vehicle for improving the economy and the world we live in by freely sharing their opinions.
Think of everything you have learned in your lifetime and all the skills you now have and how valuable that knowledge would have been to you.
How many times in your life have you thought, “I wish I had known that BEFORE I … started, bought something, invested my time…”
We bloggers can make life easier and better for so many. All we have to do is share what we know truthfully and ethically. I have asked one of my favorite businesses to reward bloggers for learning this new skill.
Executive Gift Shoppe has agreed to give any blogger who likes their store enough to write about and link to them a $25 gift certificate good toward anything they sell. You can even use it towards shipping so if your money is really tight you won’t have to spend a penny of your own money to try them out.
Father’s Day is the perfect time to visit their store full of men’s gifts and see if they have the perfect Father’s Day gifts for the Dads in your life.
You don’t have anything to lose and you might really like what you see. My regular readers know that I only recommend what I truly believe in and only work with people who most deserve my time. The owners of Executive Gift Shoppe are my kind of people: super honest, ethical, and hard-working.
They want to provide the very best service and highest quality products they can for everyone who buys from them and be your favorite gift store too.
They have the best warranty of any store I have ever seen: If any product they sell fails they will replace it and deal with the manufacturer themselves so you won’t have to!
I have known and worked with the owner Pete since 2003 and assure you that recommending his store is safe for your reputation. They have been in business as a Yahoo Store for ten years and have very good Yahoo Store reviews, Product Reviews and Testimonials.
You can read more reviews of Executive Gift Shoppe and that page also shares their A+ Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating. Online shopping is safe with them. Yahoo stores are secure and they are also TrustGuard certified and ShopperScannedPrivacyProtected.
I know many bloggers are concerned about how their readers will react to their writing about an online store. If Product Review Blogger Connie from BrainFoggles wondered before she offered a $50 Executive Gift Shoppe certificate for Mother’s Day during the last BlogMania event she doesn’t any more.
Her post received 177 comments in 24 hours. Analytics shows that 146 of her readers visited the store and looked at an average of 8.62 pages each.
Even better, most of the comments mentioned specific products they really liked. *** Readers clearly like giveaways and gift certificates. ***
A huge percentage of your readers will be interested in finding at least one gift for Father’s Day and we have something for your readers too!
- Any reader of your blog who makes a purchase and leaves a comment in your post that includes their order number can claim their own $25 Gift Certificate good on their next purchase or to give as a gift. We’d love for them to also mention what they purchased in your comments too.
- We know how tight money is for many people so we have another way that you and your readers can earn a gift certificate by doing us the favor of writing store or product reviews! For every honest review you write just send me the links and we will send you a gift certificate equal to $5 for each review you post online. See the direct links to the many sites where you can write reviews at the bottom of this post.
You can buy your Father, yourself or anyone else a really nice gift with the gift certificate of up to $80 you can earn by writing reviews.
We hope you like this idea and here are some more benefits for you:
- I will personally assist any blogger who asks with ideas on how to best tie what Pete sells into your niche. No matter what your niche is your readers would not begrude you mentioning Father’s Day!
- Since anchor text is important to every Web site we would like to specify what words you use to link to his store. This skill in using anchor text properly will greatly increase the search engine positions and traffic to your Web site.
- Any blog that links to Executive Gift Shoppe’s online gift store will receive links from this blog (and any others I collaborate with whose links would benefit you).
- All blog posts linking to Executive Gift Shoppe personalized gifts will be promoted by me on Social Networks to send you more traffic.
Here are our favorite keyword phrases (below). Please use at least one of these in your post and link only those words to that specific page. If these just don’t work for you contact me and we can discuss alternative ideas just for you.
You are welcome to use any combination of these and the pages they land on in your post) or any other product, keyword phrase or landing pages you like.
- Business card holder or business card holders
- Groomsmen Gifts
- Money clip or money clips
- Flask or flasks (we understand if you are anti-alcohol and prefer not to link to these)
- Zippo lighters (and we do know many are anti-smoking and only associate lighters with that; they DO have other uses but you don’t have to link to these either)
- Golf Gifts
- If none of these appeal ask me or visit their store and pick out something that you are interested in and contact me
You are welcome to use images from the store to make your post more attractive.
Your post can be as short and simple or as fancy and long as you wish as long as it includes at least one link using the above keywords landing on the specified page.
If you’ve never written a post about a product before they don’t have to be complicated. If the gift you like already has product reviews they almost make the post for you. Use my posts about Swarovski Crystal business card holders, money clips, Zippo lighters, or flasks as examples.
If you have (or want to learn) advanced skills like using multiple images in posts see my Groomsmen Gifts and Gift Baskets posts for ideas. I will personally assist any blogger who wants to learn how (although if you don’t use WordPress I may have to enlist assistance from collaborators).
ABOUT WRITING REVIEWS:
Reviews are only valuable when they are completely sincere and honest. Most sites that accept reviews require that you log in and if you don’t already have an account you will have to create one.
Please follow these guidelines regarding writing reviews:
- Only review products that you have bought or have personally seen and used. Do be completely honest and include both pros and cons in your reviews.
- If you have bought from Executive Gift Shoppe write about your experience and specify what you bought (and if you also do a review for each product you qualify for $5 for EACH review).
- If you have NOT bought from Executive Gift Shoppe yet only write about why you plan to buy from us (specific products you desire, huge selection, guarantee, free shipping, etc.).
- Your reviews can be similar but please do not copy and paste the same review on multiple sites. Some online sites pull reviews from multiple sources and display them together so it is best for them to not be exactly the same.
SITES WHERE YOU CAN REVIEW EXECUTIVE GIFT SHOPPE *:
- Google Maps (click Write a Review)
- Yahoo Local (click Write a Review)
- Bing (click Write a Review)
- Alexa (click Reviews and then click Write a Review)
- YellowPages (click Write a Review)
- SuperPages (click Write a Review)
- Yahoo Shopping (click Write a Review)
- Merchant Circle (click Write a Review)
- Yelp – Yelp specifically prohibits incentives for writing reviews so we can NOT include reviews at Yelp in this promotion but we invite you to connect with us there.
- Reseller Ratings (click Write a Review) – we could especially use some current reviews here – thanks!
- Epinions (click Write a Review)
- OneWed (click Write a Review)
- MyBestOnlineStores (click Write a Review)
- Coupon Mountain (click Yellow Review This Merchant button)
- Coupon Snapshot (click Write a Review)
- Affiliate Scout (click Add Review)
- Associate Programs (click Rate Program)
*NOTE: It is NOT our intention to violate the TOS of any site. Please advise us immediately if you know of any rules against including any of the above in this promotion and they will be immediately noted and removed. Thank you.
Wondering if this is a good idea or not? Read ExpertSEM’s post on Online Reviews: Ask for Them and Improve Your Search Engine Positions.
There are many reasons why people write reviews and my opinion is that the more opinions we share the more we all benefit.
GIVEAWAY OFFER EXPIRED ~ NO LONGER VALID ~ FOR NOTIFICATION OF OTHER SPECIAL OFFERS IN THE FUTURE SUBSCRIBE TO EXECGIFTSBLOG or GROWMAP
Gail Gardner
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Yes! Finally something about business cards.
No matter how technologically inclined societ ybecomes as a whole; word of motuh advertising and the value of suhc to a business is only going to increase. A referral will always be the highest compliment you can pay to a business
Julie would love you to read ..Top 3 Things I Have Learned Working on Baby Beanies
Positive Word of mouth is the best advertising any business can ever have!
Thanks for the info!
Choosing the perfect gift for fathers day can be tricky. Valuable information you have highlighted in this site. Thanks for sharing the review sites. This has been very helpful. Keep writing.
Word of mouth is the best advertising. It establishes instant credibility from the satisfaction of the recommender. This is amplified if the recommender has a personal credibility with those whom they speak.
I have a ministry that uses a fundraising business employing tiered commission. It offers a quality product at a very reasonable price from a well established, debt-free company. People don’t even have to market the product for business. The product is great on it’s own.
But, people see Ministry on the Internet and they instantly shy away. Good word of mouth recommendations are critical to people supporting my mission to help veterans, police, firefighter and EMS Professionals.
All I can do is minister with a high integrity and wait for them to start talking.
Good ol’ word of mouth, you never seem to fail… of course I suppose you don’t hear stories of word of mouth campaigns that fail…
Anyhow great post ;D thanks!
John Bocek would love you to read ..Solar Power – A Cheap Unique Gift Idea
Great article. Much of my business comes from word of month. People are far more likely to buy a product if a friend tells me about it rather than from any advertising campaign.
Going to gift my father a watch on Father’s day. He will be happy.
.-= Katy Caroline Designs´s featured blog ..The Shack =-.
Hi Katy,
If you’re still looking and are interested in pocket watches they have a great selection and they’re currently on sale 25% off.
Some are not the traditional type of pocket watch – they are clip on watches or money clip watches. You might like to see this Colibri CX Gear Day and Date Chronograph Wrist or Clip Watch. It can be worn on the wrist or clipped on.
.-= growmap´s featured blog ..Twitter Tools: Managing Multiple Twitter Accounts =-.
I think this is a best idea to share father’s day. I would like to join this giveaway to express my idea..
Very nice giveaway!
.-= Chicago Bears Hats´s featured blog ..Chicago Bears Hats Review: 2010 Orange Cap =-.
Hello Chicago Bears fan,
Did you notice that they have Chicago Bears Logo Merchandise? I noticed when I searched for Chicago Bears in the store that I found more products.
I have notified the store owner so he can add the missing items to the main page. In the meantime those two links or a search of the store will find them all.
Why not supplement your income on your site by offering those products too? You are welcome to participate in this giveaway or if you prefer join our gift affiliate program.
.-= growmap´s featured blog ..Affiliate Tips Tuesday: Holiday Promotions =-.
SITES WHERE YOU CAN REVIEW EXECUTIVE GIFT SHOPPE
I know this was not the intention of this post today, but you have compiled an excellent list of site reviews. Nice!
.-= Colleen@Kennewick Real Estate´s featured blog ..U.S. Army Sponsoring Fever Game with Special Silent Auction for Wounded Warrior Project =-.
Hi Colleen,
Actually, I have compiled lists of review sites before and thanks to your comment I am reminded to pull out that section and create a post specifically about review sites so more businesses can benefit from the information. Thank you for commenting.
The post I’ve featured in CommentLuv provides the fastest way for a business to get listed in all those sites and more so that their customers can start reviewing them.
.-= growmap´s featured blog ..Local Search Directory Listings =-.
Yup, you must have Akismet installed. I see the comment without my webiste address above.
There is an article that you might be interested in reading (maybe not).
It is about Akismet and the banning of the innocent written by a Linda Christas College student.
http://www.lindachristas.org/education/akismet-spam-filter-for-wordpress-the-banning-of-the-innocent-commenter/
I note that you have comment luv installed. That’s great, but when Akismet gets hold of innocent bystanders like me, not much luv left. Nothing but bones.
Leone
Hi Leone,
I’ve discussed that issue with Dr. Ann at length and wrote more about in a reply that I hope you’ll read in this comment in my Holiday Promotions. (That link will take you directly to my reply and you can scroll up to read the comment to which I was replying.)
I added a comment in the post you shared and hopefully it will be approved and you’ll be able to read it. In it I recommend that you register your sponsor’s sites and the college’s sites with CommentLuv and start using their optional default links.
By having your desired anchor text links as featured CommentLuv posts you can easily add them in any CommentLuv enabled blog and avoid having your comments potentially flagged as spam because they include a link or mention any domain.com.
While there is a small annual charge to register those links, IMHO it is well worth it for the value it provides. The link you see featured in CommentLuv in this reply is one of my anchor text default links.
One other thing. This blog uses KeywordLuv too and you can also use it to add anchor text links. Please read my post about How KeywordLuv works as another way you can create beneficial backlinks automatically in this and any other blog with KeywordLuv installed. There is a list of them in that post.
.-= growmap´s featured blog ..Support Small Businesses =-.
Hi, I am wondering if your site sent my comment to the spam folder or just to moderation. I am going to send this without the website. If Akismet is “protecting” this site, they trash anything I say.
So, if Akismet has done the deed to my comment, you will find it in your spam folder. Hopefully if that’s the case you will rescue me from that dark place.
Just wanted to thank you for your saving Father’s Day for my family.
Leone
Hi Leone,
Your comment did go into the SPAM folder but rest assured that I review and rescue all the real comments left here. Hopefully since I approved your other comment you’ll now be white-listed.
I suspect that it might have been flagged as spam because you included toysperiod.com in your comment. It might flag any comment that has any domain.com in it. Akismet even flags some of my replies as spam and I have to manually approve them.
.-= growmap´s featured blog ..DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv Community =-.
If it hadn’t been for you guys, I would have missed Father’s Day totally.
I am just unaware of the calendar.
However, you saved the Day for Dad.
I am grateful.
So much so that I am inviting you over to ToysPeriod.com for a backlink.
Leone
.-= Leone´s featured blog ..New Article: Whistles: Trains to Lighthouses, Grasses to Classical Music – A Short History =-.
Hi Leone,
I did see your comment in the SPAM folder and approved it. I am glad you saw this post in time for Father’s Day. I often forget holidays too or don’t think to order online in time to use regular, less expensive shipping. I’m glad you saw this.
If it weren’t for my working with the Executive Gift Shoppe online gift store and them being big into gifts for men I wouldn’t have thought to write about Father’s Day Gifts this early either.
.-= growmap´s featured blog ..Support Small Businesses =-.
Hi Gail,
I use word of mouth to find “good” home improvement contractors. I don’t trust just going to an online directory and randomly choosing someone to work on my home. It’s great to see an online company use this stratagy. I guess that’s kind of what social marketing does if you use it correctly.
.-= Tim @ Classic Car Auto Insurance´s featured blog ..Save on Auto Insurance =-.
Hi Tim,
I believe that is exactly where the Internet is taking us: to less reliance on search engines and more word of mouth recommendations from the niche community that we are most interested in.
Jennifer over at Social Implications recently wrote about the Future of Niche Social Networking and I commented that niche communites ARE the future.
There is a good discussion going on there about that topic. I highly recommend their blog to those who are interested in where SocialMedia Marketing and Word of Mouth Marketing are going.
.-= growmap´s featured blog ..Word of Mouth Marketing =-.
Thank you Gail. I will check out the future of niche social networking at Jennifer’s site.
IMO – With so much false & misleading information and (e.g. get-rich-quick “stuff”) floating around the internet, people are not as trusting with what they read as they may have been in the past… I’m not. WOM is a time-trusted way to locate reliable people and businesses.
.-= Tim @ Classic Car Auto Insurance´s featured blog ..Save on Auto Insurance =-.
I would certainly agree with Anthony because “Word of Mouth” really is free yet very effective but you have to keep in mind that the satisfaction of your target market will be the key for a positive “word of mouth” because they would share their experience with the product or service that they have consumed or used.
Hi Angelo,
While WOM is free to the recipient it is one of the most valuable things others can give us: their time. Only businesses that give very good service and sell quality products should intentionally implement WOMM. It will be catching up with those who provide poor service soon enough. They shouldn’t volunteer to be outed as a bad business.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Freelancers: How to Get More Freelance Work =-.
I think this is a best idea to share father’s day. I would like to join this giveaway to express my idea. Thanks for helding this contest.
Hi Sagar,
Do me a favor and use a name when you comment because it makes your comments appear friendlier to my readers. See the post I’ve put in CommentLuv in this reply for details.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv Community =-.
That’s certainly a great promo idea, someone is sure using their noggin’ while I don’t have a blog it definitely provides some brain food for promoting one’s own business. I don’t know that I could give away a free classic car though. 🙂
.-= John@Sunset Classics´s last blog ..1995 Bentley Turbo R for Sale =-.
Hi John,
The idea for this is mine and I’m claiming credit in case there are any complaints about it from anyone who doesn’t like incentivizing Word of Mouth (and some may object).
You may want to target additional keyword phrases for your business. Most of your potential customers will not know the name of your business and you already rank for that anyway.
I recommend you do some keyword research and check your search engine positions.
Make a list of pages you want to rank for specific phrases and consistently use them in KeywordLuv Blogs and also register your business at CommentLuv to add anchor text links in CommentLuv blogs.
Also read the post I’ll feature in CommentLuv in this reply. (Note that is one of many anchor text links I set up to specific pages at CommentLuv.) Those links turn any CommentLuv blog into a KeywordLuv enabled blog and keep out spam because only registered sites can use them.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Local Search Directory Listings =-.
Now there’s an interesting promotion. You won’t find too many businesses, online or off, allowing you to use a gift-card to cover shipping costs.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Markrting´s last blog ..Aweber Affiliate Link Contest! – This Is It!! =-.
Yes that’s true I don’t believe I’ve seen anyone accept gift cards for shipping. It’s too bad more don’t offer that option.
.-= Chris@San Francisco Sports Cars´s last blog ..2001 Ferrari 360 Spider Fiorano for Sale =-.
Hi Chris,
I understand why most merchants don’t because it is more cash out of their pocket but Executive Gift Shoppe is not just any gift store. They’ll even pay shipping Internationally – and many blog and contest sponsors only ship to the U.S. and maybe the U.K. or a few countries.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Affiliate Tips Tuesday: How to Deep Link ShareASale =-.
One famous business that depend word of mouth is MLM. People tend to believe people they know.
“We bloggers can make life easier and better for so many. All we have to do is share what we know truthfully and ethically.” – I strongly agree with you on this statement, in fact I learnt the most from truth sharing from bloggers and not from the many out there who claim to be guru.
Hi Wilson,
Yes, when MLM works it is because of WOMM. Your comment about gurus made me smile. The difference between “truth sharing” bloggers and gurus is often that the first are not motivated by selling something.
Some information is worth buying – like Andrew Rondeau’s Income Blogging Guide which I simply must make the time to use!
.-= Gail @ Support Bloggers´s last blog ..Affiliate Tips Tuesday: Holiday Promotions =-.
I might have missed it, but I didn’t see it. Is there a deadline for the reviews to be turned in by?
.-= Lindsay´s last blog ..Sleep Number Select Comfort May Specials =-.
Hello Lindsay,
While the blogging portion of this post was specifically intended as a Father’s Day promotion there is no deadline for reviews and most likely I can extend the offer for bloggers who see this too late for Father’s Day and are interested in participating.
I will put a very visible update at the very top of the post letting bloggers and reviewers know if this offer will end. Until then, anyone reading this can assume the offer is still open to them.
.-= Gail @ Support Small Business´s last blog ..Twitter Tools: Managing Multiple Twitter Accounts =-.
Word of mouth is the best way to market. It’s free and effective. Your promotion for the gift card is a great idea! I’m going to be sending out an email to all my customers at the end of the month asking to review my business. I’ll give them a list of sites they can choose from. I’ll do that at the end of each month for that month’s customers. Thanks for the idea.
Hi Anthony,
That is an excellent idea that I’ve recommended to many businesses. Most of your customers will not know where they can review your store, business or products online so sending them the direct links and a tip on how to do it makes it easier.
We should not always expect them to write reviews for free because their time is valuable too. You might consider offering them the same type of incentive I used in this post.
While many feel that we should never offer to pay for reviews we live in a society which is extremely money focused and self-centered. The percentage of people who will give freely of their time to assist your business is tiny; the percentage who will do it for a small reward are many.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Support Small Businesses =-.
Once we post a review how do we let Executive Gift Shoppe know about it for the gift card?
.-= Shanaka @ Thrifty Mama B´s last blog ..Wal Mart: Free Ice Cream Sundaes 5/22 Only =-.
Hi Shanaka,
Just use the contact form in this blog or email me at the address on the contact page. I will make sure that all bloggers get their gift cards and answer any questions you may have.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Word of Mouth Marketing =-.