Posted by Bill on March 23, 2011 · Leave a Comment
I got my new iPhone 4 today so I wanted inform everyone that I will not be heard from or seen for a couple of weeks. It is critically important to be sure the device is properly setup to execute the very important functions my clients depend on. And, the phone is just so friggin cool and I have no self discipline. Disregard that last line I will be conducting a rigorous testing protocol on the phone. It’s got two friggin cameras. Sorry about that, I do need some time to become familiar with the operation of the device. I promise I’ll be back soon. If you need me please call, use the cell number, it will help me validate the devise functionality during the testing period.
Posted by Bill on March 23, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Last week I was railing on about Social Media and how many in my business are selling this strategy to people that are very unlikely to benefit from the effort and expense. In one of my writings I referred to an article that suggested when people asks for a Social Media campaign what they really want is content marketing. The reason give was that people don’t know what content marketing is and how it works and if they did they would want it. So, here is my definition of content marketing and a little about why it is so important and effective in getting your enterprise better search results. You can read more about content marketing on my website.
It is critical to keep one thing in the forefront of your mind when embarking on a program to bring more traffic to your website. More traffic = Top position on the first page of a search result for a specific keyword or phrase. The operative words here are keyword or phrase. Everything is based on the keyword or phrase however, these must be supported by relevant content material on your website. In the past there were internet marketers who just loaded up a website with keywords, sometimes hundreds or thousands of them, to get a top listing. When a visitor arrived on this page he or she found no meaningful CONTENT and was disappointed with the search result. The searcher had a negative experience using Google and in the future might be less inclined to use the service, off to Yahoo maybe. Google stopped displaying pages with a high density of keywords and phrases without relevant content support and in doing so they acknowledged that the quality of a search result is critical to their success.
When we judge the quality of a product or service we look at what it’s made of, how it’s constructed, the quality of the materials, the integrity of the company, the popularity of the product, the consistency of its performance, ease of use, etc. The human mind takes in a multitude of information tosses it into the organic processor (our brain) and arrives at a judgment. How we arrive at a final assessment is constantly changing based on the context of the decision. If you want a pizza delivered speed counts if you want dinner out with a nice glass of wine or two speed doesn’t matter at all. Somehow, our brains are able to give a RELEVANCE grade to a diverse set of factors and arrive at a decision that answers the question or solves the problem.
There has probably never been more money, time and talent invested in trying to duplicate the processes of the human mind than has been spent on the Google algorithm. If you think about it what they’re trying to do is define the brain processes we use ot make decisions and make them better. Since they are working with computers that are reading our websites (no emotion) they must base their decision making processes on the relationships between measurable data points with CONTENT being a prime factor. There’s the word again. The measurable level of CONTENT in relationship to the specific keyword or phrase is a measure of RELEVANCE. Without good content in the proper amount in relationship to your selected keyword or phrase and your competitor’s content you cannot earn a high search ranking. If you miss the mark on CONTENT you cannot be considered as RELEVANT as a competitor who does meet the standard on CONTENT that is RELEVANT to the keyword.
So, if your goal is to earn top rankings in search engine results over a long period of time and you are given the choice between spending $500 a month on Tweets, Linked IN and Facebook or spending $500 a month adding RELEVANT CONTENT pages to your website choose CONTENT. It is the best way to attract Google’s attention, tell them you are RELEVANT and keep them interested in your business over the long haul. The human mind works the same way. We gravitate towards things and people that consistently bring us new interesting (RELEVANT) information and experiences (CONTENT) that attracts our attention. All the mainstream search engine brains work the same way.
There’s a reason why Barry Dillar is spending millions to build a content farm for his businesses.
Thanks for reading.
Posted by Bill on March 18, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Yesterday I wrote a post that was critical of social media when applied to the wrong enterprise. The point is the only thing worse than not having a social media presence is to have inactive social sites and pages out there. Nothing says “I give up” louder than a social media site or page that has been inactive for a more that 30 days. So the choice is to keep making the posts or hire someone to do the work for you. If you choose the latter be sure to monitor what this person is posting. Be sure the messaging is on target with your goals and objectives and not a reflection of the person who is doing the writing. You also need to monitor any responses to comments to be sure these are consistent with the ideals and policies of your business.
That said, I think it strengthens my case for most companies to first get some data and analysis done on their website. There is probably some very low hanging fruit that will be easy to harvest and convert to dollars by amending and updating certain elements in your website. It is also likely the process of harvesting your low hanging fruit will be fairly straight forward, come at a reasonable cost and will not require any time or effort on the part the business owner or manager. The big plus is these optimization strategies will have a lasting impact. Picking and optimizing the right keywords and content copy will be honored by the search engines for a long time. The same is true the ineffective results you get if you have the wrong keywords and the wrong content.
Get the basics right and you’ll enjoy lasting benefits with a lot less hassle. These investments will be a lot easier to monetize also. Fix it, track it, adjust it and they will come.
Thanks for reading.
Posted by Bill on March 17, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Man I’m hearing a lot of social media hype every day. I’m also seeing a lot of people investing in social media that will see no benefit what-so-ever. Here’s what I mean. Last week the media was reporting the record breaking ascent in the number of Twitter followers Charlie Sheen had amassed in 36 hours. He has just under 3 million followers now. Actor, Ashton Kutcher has just over 25,000 Twitter followers and he works very hard at this. Pop star, Katie Perry has just over 6 million followers. These are international stars that make their money filling movie theaters, capturing TV viewers and selling concert tickets. Their activities in Social Media are focused on feeding the fan frenzy that keeps them on top. They spend a lot of time and money building their image to solidify their standing as bankable stars and the fans gobble it up. Imagine how well the post office would be doing if the fans were sending letters. All this media attention about Twitter put a ton of real news stories on the back burner and over the past 18 months has made many believe Twitter and Facebook have magical powers to make us all rich and famous too. Mmmm the word HYPE keeps coming to mind.
A direct result of all this attention is a growing population of Internet marketers who use this hype to conjured up stories that sell Social Media to “Joe the plumber”. There is a wild assumption that what is good for Katie Perry is good for Joe. I don’t really see the correlation it seems a bit of a stretch in logic and a manipulation of information to me. Mmmm snake oil comes to mind. The people selling only social media solutions remind me of the old saying, “If the only tool you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail”. Social media is their hammer so every online marketing project looks like a nail. Why not? It’s an easy sale the attention and frenzy makes people feel they’re missing something if they don’t get on board. Salesman’s dream. Don’t ask about client retention. Here’s a tip if you want to get started with social media try blogging. If you can do that and you see some impact you may be ready for other venues.
Follow the social media promoters around for a while you will find a waste land of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and blogs that have not seen a new posting in many months or years. You will also find business owners and managers who are soured on the idea of Internet marketing because of their experience. It’s a lot of work and the content must be good. Owners stop because it doesn’t justify the cost and or effort. It’s very simple, if it worked or was an efficient use of their time and money they would keep doing it. But they stop. The really sad part is the guy who sold the program has his commission and an endless supply of fresh prospects ready to buy-in. In many cases these clients would have been better off buying a Yellow Pages ad. Yep ink on paper.
When given the opportunity to do the research I have not found a single business that would not get more benefit from upgrading their website to a modern platform, designing pages that will convert visitors to customers, optimizing the content so the search engines can find them and building links with the outside world. I’d also add some focus on local search optimization and email for good measure. These are all sound and proven strategies that are still powerful and productive. They produce on-going benefits without daily or weekly effort, activity and expense. Done well these tactics will out perform any social media campaign many fold for the majority of businesses. Now here’s the best part. This can all be tracked and measured with a high degree of accuracy and a return on investment can be determined. Not true with social media.
I will admit there are businesses and institutions with a need to communicate, build community or build a brand on a large scale that have reaped huge benefits from social media. Like everything it has it’s place and I want to be the first one in line to submit a proposal to these folks to setup and social media program. However, I do believe that most locally focused basic service businesses and basic industry companies have better online marketing opportunities to choose from.
Having choices and a knowledgeable and experienced adviser who understands your business is the key. We are always better served by working with people and companies that offer us more choices. This increases the chances we will get the best product rather than the only product being offered. WSI Web Sales Now is a full service Internet marketing agency that is only interested in delivering the best possible solution to our clients. Our goal is to create lasting results for our clients at a minimum cost in time and money. Call us and we’ll give you an objective appraisal of your online marketing needs and a solution that will include a range of tactics and strategies. There are no one trick ponies here. We have a hammer, drill, screwdrivers, pliers, clamps, saws, wrenches, you get the idea.
Thanks for reading.
Posted by Bill on March 14, 2011 · Leave a Comment
I spent 13 years in the newspaper business “back in the day”. I was appalled when the first newspapers went to the skinny pages to save paper. This was not a good sign for an industry who’s last concern was how much paper and ink they were consuming. I left several years ago before things got really bad. There was still a classified section that people paid good money to run ads in. My time there does intensify my sadness over the loss of one of America’s greatest institutions. Back then at lease on a local level a good newspaper kept the politicians more or less honest and made a great contribution to their communities in many other ways. It’s too bad, but we go on.
Advertising online surpassed newspapers in 2010. So says the emarketer blog today. They even included online revenue sold by newspapers and the online guys still beat-em. Click here and you can see for yourself.
The real quandary now is what do local merchants do to promote their businesses now that the local paper is becoming less and less effective? Fortunately, Google has change their search to give local business the advantage when local folks are searching for local services. It’s a good time to be a local business man who has some help working with the internet. It’s still not as simple as buying a newspaper ad or an ad in the yellow pages. It’s complicated but not impossible for the independent business person to use the Internet to generate store traffic and new sales. I would avoid anyone who calls on the phone and says this is easy and or automatic.
I would stick to a guy who will come and see you just like your newspaper and yellow pages rep does. Look for a guy who will spend some time with you learning about your business. Give serious consideration to a guy who will develop a plan and explain the details and then stay with you to be sure you are getting results. Internet marketing is not a one time event, it’s a process.
By the way, I’m one of those guys who will come and see you and help you with the process and work to get you results.
Posted by Bill on March 14, 2011 · Leave a Comment
In order to practice what I preach I had 30+ content pages professionally written and optimized for my website several months ago. The vendor delivered the pages and as is often the case I procrastinated on posting the new pages on my website. I did have one of my vendors post the first six page a couple of months ago with good result from an SEO perspective.
Last night I decided it was time to get the rest of the page installed. So, while sitting in front of the TV watching Lisa Rena get booted from Celebrity Apprentice I was able install 30 pages of new copy on my website. This includes the Meta tags, adding titles, descriptions and keywords. This is just a small event that illustrates the ease of use and efficiency of the Word Press system.
Now I’m writing a blog that will bring more traffic to my site on my Word Press website. Very Cool and efficient.
Last week I was railing on about Social Media and how many in my business are selling this strategy to people that are very unlikely to benefit from the effort and expense. In one of my writings I referred to an article that suggested when people asks for a Social Media campaign what they really want is content marketing. The reason give was that people don’t know what content marketing is and how it works and if they did they would want it. So, here is my definition of content marketing and a little about why it is so important and effective in getting your enterprise better search results. You can read more about content marketing on my website.