When it comes to selling a new product or branding oneself or company online, what’s typically the main goal? To get people to click on your link and buy buy buy, right? Yes- Click here! Go to my beautiful site!

But is this what people do? No way! In fact, if you’re too eager to plaster your link all over the place, you are likely to be deemed a spammer, annoying, and a nuisance. Yuck- who wants that?

Instead of focusing on spreading your link everywhere, why not save it and all the valuable information that sits behind it for people who readily want and ask to see it?

How can you do this? You need to build a positive, trusting relationship with others. Let them know you– who you are and what you’re all about. Put yourself out there. Help people. Provide value. And give it away for free. My friend Joe Schroeder always says, “What you give away, you always get to keep.” Ain’t that the truth?

So to start, why not concern yourself more with helping others do what they need to do or obtain what they are looking for? It’s easy-peasy.

Here’s one way you can start from scratch and for free. Leverage an existing community to carve out a voice or brand for yourself or your company. Ever heard of Yahoo! Answers? Of course, you have. I’m sure many of you have even benefited from it. It’s a community-driven website provided by Yahoo! which allows members to engage in a site-wide discussion forum. The service is quite simple. Users ask and answer questions about virtually any topic.

Hello! If you are an expert in a particular industry, or have information that could help others, or if you’re just passionate about a specific topic, Yahoo! Answers offers a great opportunity for you to lend your expertise, knowledge, and resourcefulness to a community where everyone is literally asking for assistance.

The service is free to all and is accessible to anyone in the world. The information posted on the forum is non-exclusive and royalty-free. As a result of each posting being automatically indexed to a category, it will show up high on search engine results.

So where is the power behind this?

Well, if you are able to help others by providing useful answers to people’s questions, you will not only be offering quality information to others, but you will also, over time, build your credibility as a resource. Once you establish credibility, it will be natural for readers to want more from you and to want to become your subscriber.

Here’s the KEY and I will state the obvious: You must provide helpful, useful, quality information.

There are many categories and you will want to focus on positioning yourself as an authority in a particular niche. Eventually, when people see your posts, they will automatically read and LISTEN to what you have to say.

You will start to earn respect from other community members, which will give you more freedom to answer questions on an ongoing basis and turn this into an additional income stream for you.

Remember: When posting answers do NOT ruin your reputation by putting links for people to go and buy something on all your posts!

Instead, focus on posting helpful answers throughout the day and on just 1 out of, say, 10 posts, include a post that includes all of your information, including a link. If your answers are indeed helpful, your readers will WANT this information. The other posts will simply be direct answers providing very helpful information, and will NOT include a link to anything.

A few technicals… Yahoo! Answers operates on a point system. Each new user starts with 100 points upon opening an account and additional points are obtained by answering questions, receiving votes on answers, and having answers chosen as “best answer”.

As you continue to consistently add quality content to questions asked, you will be laying the groundwork for becoming a “Top Contributor”. Top Contributor status gains you a bright badge under your name and image. It represents the highest position you can achieve on Yahoo! Answers.

Once you reach this level, you will be seen by others as an authority and an expert. Everyone will see your answers and people will readily LISTEN to what you have to say. This becomes very powerful when you post your occasional 1 in 10 posts with a link to your site. People will be much more inclined to follow that link and more importantly, YOU!

A similar community-driven answers site has just been launched at Mahalo.com. Now you can double your presence!

JM Smucker Co, which recently acquired Folgers from Proctor & Gamble, is launching an immediate price reduction plan in their Folgers Ground prices as well as their Dunkin’ Donuts retail roasted coffees which it manufactures and distributes.

The aggressive price reduction strategy is in response to the pressure of the worsening economy and consumers’ growing propensity to forgo pricey café brews in favor of home brewing and less-expensive cups of coffee. In order to stay competitive, passing savings onto customers is their way of gaining customer loyalty, especially in a sagging economy.

With ever-increasing competition from McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts, do these kinds of price reduction moves necessarily mean bad news for premium brands like Starbucks?

What really happens to consumer loyalty in a recession? When we are forced to cut back on our spending, do we automatically downscale? Instead of Starbucks, do we opt to go with the more cost-effective means of having coffee by brewing Folgers at home?

According to Eric Anderson, VP of Emerging Media at Whitehorse, consumers will, indeed cut back on their spending, but not necessarily in the way most of us might think. Instead of making decisions between brands, consumers will make decisions between the types of luxuries that they enjoy. So, instead of Starbucks versus Folgers, for example, the decision is more likely to reside between Starbucks and say, Netflix.

If this is true, then this can make it more difficult for traditional marketers to keep customers since their brands may be competing against a completely unrelated product or service.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told analysts last week that it’s critical that Starbucks not undermine its premium brand position in the face of economic pressures. Starbucks is not “a fast-food operator” or “discount business,” he stressed.

True. Starbucks is, in fact, built around a community and the brand, itself, is a part of people’s lives.
Watch this.

It’s no wonder that in the face of tough economic times, their new Gold Card program which carries a $25-per-year fee and offers benefits –notably, 10% off on most purchases–drew 350,000 sign-ups in the first four weeks after it began to be promoted in stores in November, Starbucks reported.

Clearly, some folks are not willing to forego their beloved coffee of choice for its lesser-priced counterparts.

So, what can we learn from this? What can businesses do to maintain customer loyalty in times like this? Anderson suggests we need to have a deeper level of engagement with our consumers about where our brand fits in their lives. Advertising alone will not achieve this, but social media might. Why? Because the impact of social media is a matter of trust. It’s about connecting with people in their daily lives and engaging them.

With the web consisting of a giant network of humans interacting and a mass of conversations, Anderson believes it is communities that will drive brands and inspire brand loyalty. And because of this, businesses can’t afford to ignore the importance of the social media space.

Bottom line: Increasing loyalty, which can be leveraged through communities (esp. social media), is a key way to recession-proof your brand.

Since the launch of the new DOT ME extension in July, there are already over 2 ½ million DOT ME web pages on the Google search index.

People and businesses have foreseen a huge potential in the new .ME domain names and rushed to pick up as many as possible during the opening bid period in June. It has become the fastest domain extension to ever launch on the Internet.

The first DOT ME domain auction, held by the DOT ME registry, broke records for a new extension, with total sales reaching just over 2 million USD.

So what’s the mass appeal? The internet is all about you and me. Think: youtube, myspace, facebook etc. .ME is the only 2 character domain extension out there that enables you to use in so many ways for marketing and branding.

“Due to their universal appeal and quality to be easily remembered they have become essential to brand yourself or a company in the online market. Furthermore, some “premium” names such as. Contact.ME, Drive.ME, Kiss.Me, Youand.Me, Insure.me have the potential to create a completely new perception of the websites.The .ME extension allows for easily memorable sites..” Source: DomainInformer.com

So, what are you waiting for? Express yourself! Pick up a top-level domain that’s all about YOU! Get your .ME today!

Yesterday, I included an excerpt from Seinfeld’s hilarious episode, “The Label Maker” which highlighted the notion of regifting. Jerry also suggests you can tell immediately how a person feels about your gift based on their reaction. If they state what it is, they probably don’t like it.

This month, Best Buy Canada has launched a holiday ad campaign to showcase its ability to connect with shoppers and assist in finding gifts that elicit the best reactions. Here is a hilarious spot featuring two parents seeking the right gift for their twin girls.

I wonder how many takes that took?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you’ve probably come across the wildly successful viral video site, ElfYourself.com from OfficeMax.

To capitalize on this year’s anticipated repeat traffic, OfficeMax has recently re-launched the site with three new dances (country shown here) as well as opportunities to purchase downloads, cards, and gifts. Now, not only will OfficeMax reap the viral branding benefits, but it may also make money. What a concept!

So who else is going to try and do the same for their brand? It appears that UPS is attempting to go viral this year with its new holiday site: UPSRegifter.com.

UPS injects humor into cyberspace by promoting the concept of regifting – the practice of giving unwanted gifts to others. Cyber regifters can select a gift from the pre-filled gallery or upload a photo of their own to send to others. Recipients will then receive an email indicating they’ve received a gift and can join in and do the same.

It will be interesting to see if UPS is able to garner the same kind of success that OfficeMax has.

Incidentally, the term “regifting” originally appeared on the January 19, 1995 episode of Seinfeld, “The Label Maker.” An excerpt from the show:

Elaine: Hey.
Jerry: Hey.
Elaine: Hey. Oh, is that a label maker?
Jerry: Yes it is. I got it as a gift, it’s a Label Baby Junior.
Elaine: Love the Label Baby, baby. You know those things make great gifts, I just got one of those for Tim Whatley for Christmas.
Jerry: Tim Whatley?
Elaine: Yeah. Who sent you that one?
Jerry: One Tim Whatley!
Elaine: No, my Tim Whatley?
Jerry: The same, he sent it as a thank you for my Super Bowl tickets.
Elaine: I think this is the same one I gave him. He recycled this gift. He’s a regifter!
Jerry: Or maybe he liked your gift so much, he decided to get me the same thing. Perhaps it’s an homage.
Elaine: Yeah, perhaps.
Jerry: Well how did he react when you gave it to him?
Elaine: Um, he said, “Oh. A label maker. Howbout that?”
Jerry: He repeated the name of the gift?
Elaine: Yeah, so?
Jerry: Oh, well, if you repeat the name of the gift, you can’t possibly like it.
Elaine: What do you mean?
Jerry: Oh, you know, like when someone opens something up and they go, “Oh. Tube socks.” What are you gonna do about it?
Elaine: I don’t know, I guess I’ll just get invited up to his apartment and see if he’s got a label maker.
Jerry: Why’d you get him a gift anyway?
Elaine: Oh, he did some dental work for me and he didn’t charge me so I thought I’d get him a Christmas present.
Jerry: Yeah, well, if you’re getting him anything for his birthday, I’m a large.

Happy gift giving!