Does Online Video Marketing Mean Lower Quality Production?
You might think that, if you watch a lot of YouTube videos, online video marketing is a low quality endeavor. That’s not necessarily true. It is true that many online videos suffer from lack of quality in terms of production features, but don’t take that as an indication that all online video production is low quality.
First, the most important thing about online video marketing is that it be effective. If a home made video produced on a shoestring makes its creator a few thousand dollars in a couple of weeks, then that’s effective marketing. Who cares if it’s low quality, right?
While it’s true that low quality videos can make you money, it’s also true that a higher quality video has more potential to make you more money. Effective marketing is effective marketing.
Keep in mind that you have other alternatives to YouTube. There are other online video sharing sites that can drive traffic to your website and allow you to show your marketing prowess. The key to successful video marketing online is quality, and there’s no reason you can’t have a high quality production that makes you money.
When you want to find out the truth about online video marketing, talk to a professional who delivers on quality.
Have You Caught On To These 4 IM Trends?
Some trends come and go. Some stick around. I think the following 4 Internet marketing trends may be keepers. At least for a little while. Have you discovered these trends yet?
- Blog Marketing – Blog marketing has been around for a long time now, but it took a little dip after Google killed inbound links. Nevertheless, it seems to be making a comeback, particularly for businesses that want to use it for marketing and branding purposes.
- Mobile Search – Mobile search is a trend that is sure to stick around. People not only read blogs and news with their mobile phones, but they update their social media accounts and make purchases.
- Local Search – All kinds of businesses are discovering local search. And unlike traditional SEO, you can be very powerful and effective on the local level within just a few weeks.
- Social Media Marketing – Facebook and Twitter are all the rage right now. You’d think they are passing phases, but they’re not. If you are running a business, social media is a must in today’s fast-paced marketplace.
Now is the time to hop on board these Internet marketing trends. Don’t just ride the waves until they hit the beach. Make them a part of your daily routine.
Do Personal Tweets Matter?
You’ve got you a business Twitter account and now you’re ready to go. You’ve started posting, but you’re not getting a crazy amount of interaction. The question to ask is, are you getting personal enough?
Social media marketing is an interesting game. Online, users prefer a little more personal touch. They don’t want to be bombarded with endless dry and impersonal marketing messages. They want to talk to a real human being, even if they’re talking about business. That doesn’t mean you have to avoid talking about business at all.
A new study indicates that this could be true (though I do see some problems with the study as presented).
The study seems to indicate that young people prefer the personal tweets, but older people prefer no tweets at all. It also indicates that younger people consider personal to be more credible. However, it’s interesting to note that they preferred all personal to part personal and part business. That just doesn’t seem right.
I think the takeaway from this study is that you should incorporate personal messages into your business tweets. Don’t make it all dry. But don’t get so carried away with personal information about yourself that you tell too much. If you ate the worm, don’t tell us you danced on the table and took off your clothes.
Who Created The Spam Market?
Spam is a big problem. There’s search engine spam, e-mail spam, social media spam, and canned spam (just kidding; checking to see if you’re really reading). :-)
I’ve read blog posts from SEOs and Internet marketers that essentially blame Google and its policies for search engine spam. I don’t think it’s a fair accusation. Who would you blame for e-mail spam? Or how about social media spam?
Whenever there is money to be made, there will be cheaters. Stock markets provide a way for people to invest money in hopes of getting a profitable return. Certain practices, like using insider information, are illegal and considered unethical. But people still practice them, and if they are caught they will pay the price.
Of course, spam is not illegal. But the search engines have policies in place to address spam in their indexes. Are they perfect? Do the search engine policies effectively control spam 100% of the time? No. But it’s not for lack of trying.
The real cause of spam is greed. Some people would rather risk future profits for the quick dollar now. That’s essentially the motivation behind every spam message you see – whether in your e-mail box, your search engine listings, or your social media walls. If you are a legitimate Internet marketer, however, you don’t want to get caught being a spammer. It can be a real reputation destroyer. Instead, focus on providing value and deliver on your promises.
The Best Article Marketing Money Can Buy
A lot has been said about article marketing. Good and bad. It used to be the preferred online marketing method for serious Internet marketers. For some people, it still is. But when I say “article marketing,” what do you think of? Yeah, that’s what most people think about – link building.
There’s nothing wrong with writing articles and submitting them to article directories in hopes that you’ll attract inbound links to your website. And there’s nothing wrong with writing guest articles for other blogs and websites for the same reason. But ask yourself this question: How much time do I spend seeking inbound links via article marketing and guest blogging versus writing content for my own website?
If you spend more time seeking inbound links through articles and guest blog posts than you spend writing quality articles for your own website, then I’d say you aren’t spending your time wisely.
The reason I say that is because there is no content more valuable than the content you write for your own website. Search engines can always change their algorithms to devalue links that you spent hundreds of hours chasing. We’ve seen that several times over the years. But if you write quality content for your own website, you will seldom see a change that devalues that content. The key word there is “quality.” In other words, not spam.
Never forget this: Content is king. It always has been and always will be. Links are good, but the best article marketing you can ever do is to write quality content for your own website.
How Facebook Is Turning PPC On Its Ear
A few years ago, if you wanted to advertise using a pay-per-click model, you either had to go with Google or opt for one of the smaller search engines, pay less, and get less traffic. In fact, that wasn’t too long ago. But now, Facebook advertising is growing at a very rapid pace and seems to be threatening Google’s dominance. One thing that could tip the balance for advertising is real-time advertising.
According to AdAge, Facebook has started experimenting with real-time PPC ads.
It works like this: You post a status update that says, “I love peanut butter sandwiches.” In that instant, an ad appears on your wall promoting peanut butter. Maybe it’s Jif, maybe it’s Peter Pan, but you know it’s peanut butter. Would you click the ad?
I’m guessing that many users would click the ad – probably enough to make it worthwhile to advertisers to spend money on real-time advertising.
The article doesn’t say whether real-time ads would cost more than regular PPC ads, but if the value is there, it might be worth paying more. Virtually anything can be promoted in real time just based on users’ posting habits. This takes PPC advertising to a new level and it could push Facebook ahead of Google as the preferred PPC provider.
Do You Ask Questions On Facebook?
Do you ask your friends questions on Facebook? Well, because a lot of people do, Facebook has now decided that a Questions feature would be nice. So they’re introducing one.
Personally, I think it’s a good idea. After all, Q&A sites are quite popular right now, so why not get in on the action? Facebook, after all, is the most trafficked website online. Allowing users to ask questions and answer them might actually result in more usage. At the very least, it could lead to more page views on Facebook, which could lead to more advertising dollars for Facebook’s pocketbook.
No problem, right? They’re a business. Let them make the money.
I agree. But will the average user see it that way? I mean, one of the hallmark features of the Questions format is that friends of your friends will be able to respond directly to your questions. Is that what you want? If not, then you shouldn’t use Facebook Questions.
I see this feature getting used a lot by businesses. The blog post doesn’t say whether or not Admins of fan pages will be able to ask or answer questions. If not now, then I think it will come to that at some point in the future. Even if it doesn’t, what’s to stop a business person from asking questions of potential customers and getting those questions answered, which will ultimately lead to the beginning of a Facebook relationship. See where I’m going with this?
Is the Facebook Questions feature a good one? I think it’s good for business. It may even be good for consumers. But will you use it?
Is Social Media Marketing Getting Harder?
Social Times says it is. And it’s easy to see how they’ve arrived at that conclusion.
Social media like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have been going through heavy growth phases in the last few years. At some point, that growth is going to slow down. Social Times is saying that could be this year.
By slowing down, they don’t mean that growth will go negative. Rather, the social media sites will continue to grow, but at a much slower rate.
What’s that mean, exactly? It means that the social media users who are on those sites will be more savvy and sophisticated than the users of the past five years. As such, they will be more discerning users and less likely to click a link out of curiosity. You’ll have to work harder to get that click and to make the sale.
When it comes to social media marketing, there are several components that are necessary to run a successful and engaging campaign. Here’s what you have to think about:
- Competitive Intelligence – Who is your competition and what are they up to?
- Market Research – Who is your target market, when are they online, which social media sites do they use, and when do they use those sites?
- Strategic Planning – Which social media sites are a best fit for you, what times of day should you be posting, and what messages should you be promoting?
Gone are the days when you can just log in and start tweeting. You need a social media marketing plan and your plan should begin with research.
Can You Grow Your Twitter Following?
If you’re a small business owner and have decided to use Twitter to expand your business and market your brand, how do you go about growing your Twitter following? Is there a trick?
There’s really no trick. There’s no magic pill or special recipe. The most important thing to remember is quality, not quantity.
That said, you do want followers who are interested in your product or service, but you don’t necessarily want a bunch of followers for the sake of having a bunch of followers. So where’s the balance?
First, keep in mind that you have a target market profile. You do, don’t you? Another way of saying that is the ideal customer. If you provide a local service to Boston, Masschusetts, it won’t do you any good to have a couple of thousand followers from Los Angeles. But a couple of hundred followers in Boston would be pure gold.
Start by looking up by keyword the type of people you want following you on Twellow. When you follow people, don’t follow then unfollow them when they follow you back. That’s considered uncouth and it could get your Twitter account suspended.
You want to be consistent in your tweeting. Try to tweet at the same time every day. If possible, set aside 10-15 minutes at a time two or three times a day for tweeting.
Another thing you want to do is reply to tweets and retweet the tweets of the people you follow. This builds good will. And if you enter into conversations about your niche with your followers, then you will attract other people interested in your niche.
Growing a Twitter list takes time. It doesn’t happen in one day so be patient and keep tweeting.
Using Q&A Sites For Competitive Intelligence
Competitive research is one of the most important parts of doing business online. If you are going to beat the competition on the playing field, then you’ve got to know as much about what they are up to as you can. That means, you’ve got to get your feelers out and do a little competitive intelligence work. Q&A sites are a great opportunity for doing that.
One way to use Q&A sites for competitive intelligence is to query your competition’s name or name brand on the site. You’ll almost always find people asking about and discussing the features and ways of using your competition’s products.
If you read the answers on those questions related to your competition, you can often learn new things about your competition. If not, you can sometimes use those questions as a platform for suggesting your own products as an alternative. In other words, if someone asks a question about alternative uses for your competition’s product, then that’s an open door for you to discuss your product.
Competitive intelligence is non-negotiable. The only way to win in any market is to know what you’re up against. Q&A sites present the perfect library of information on resources on almost any industry, and it’s a great place to learn more about the competition.
How Many Languages Do You Need For Web Design?
Web design has come a long way in the last 20 years. It used to be, if you wanted to build a web page, then you had one option – HTML. Hypertext Markup Language is the basic language of the Web. Today, if you are building a website of any kind, chances are you are going to incorporate HTML into your programming even if you use other languages.
But HTML is not the only language you need, by far. If you expect your web site to have some interactive features, then you’ll need more – much more – than HTML.
CSS, or cascading style sheets, is a language devised to help Web programmers build websites where design elements can be defined in a single document across multiple pages. Then you can use HTML for your content on each individual page.
PHP allows Web site designers the ability to add interactive design features into their web pages without jacking up the HTML.
JavaScript is another interactive and dynamic Web language with some useful features.
Microsoft has joined the web design game as well with its own programming languages and Web application framework. ASP is the basic Web language of Microsoft. ASP.NET allows you to build more dynamic web pages on a Windows server.
Other application frameworks have entered the market as well. One popular one in recent years is the open source Ruby on Rails, which is based on the Ruby programming language. Twitter, and a few other popular websites, was built on Ruby on Rails.
So, to answer the question, how many Web languages do you need for Web design? You really only need one. But if you want to build dynamic web pages that are interactive and keep visitors coming back for more, sometimes you need to incorporate several languages into a single web design.
The Bad SEO Advice NAR Gives
If you are a real estate agent or broker, you might feel more comfortable getting your SEO advice from another real estate agent or broker, or from the National Association of Realtors. That might not be such a good idea, however.
Think about this: Would you caution your real estate clients against getting real estate advice from anyone other than a real estate agent? The reason is obvious, isn’t it?
The NAR recently posted SEO advice for real estate agents in an article on its website. The problem isn’t so much in the general advice NAR gives, but in the specific advice.
For example, its six recommended SEO practices include:
- Write better page titles
- Broadcast your links
- Use keywords generously
- Reword outgoing links
- Develop a site map
- Tweet about it
That’s a mediocre list, at best. What’s not on that list and should be are: 1) list your site on local directories; 2) claim it on Google Local, Bing Local, and Yahoo! Local; 3) and start a blog. But the nitty-gritty details of these bullet points isn’t much to be desired either.
For example, hear what NAR has to say about keywords:
Your main keywords should appear at least 10 to 13 times per 700 words on a page, says Mark Menzella, who runs RE/Advantage, a real estate Web design company in Fairfield, N.J.
In industry speak, this concept is called “keyword density.” The problem is, keyword density is a huge myth. It doesn’t work. There is no optimal number of times a keyword should appear on any web page. That’s because the search engines use almost 200 criteria for determining where pages rank for a specific keyword.
Let’s look at what NAR says about tweeting:
“Now that tweets are indexed in Google, Twitter has become an important part of SEO strategy,” says Misty Lackie of Go Smart Solutions, a technology consulting firm in Grover Beach, Calif. So get a Twitter account if you don’t already have one, and create useful tweets that happen to include your business keywords and links to your site.
Honestly, I’ve never seen much SEO benefit from tweeting. Keywords in your tweets don’t help you much in terms of your website’s SEO. Even anchor text in your links from Twitter are low grade since those links are no-follow links. That’s not to say that Twitter is a bad marketing tool. Rather, it’s a highly effective marketing tool for getting you some local exposure, but for SEO, it’s not a must-have tool.
Your best bet for good SEO advice is not to rely on industry professionals within real estate. You should get your real estate advice from real estate agents and brokers, but get your SEO advice from professional SEO consultants.
Why Have Your Own YouTube Channel
YouTube presents one of the best online marketing opportunities around. And I’m not just talking about producing an occasional video and uploading it to the site and bookmarking it. I’m talking about producing your own series or regular YouTube show through your own channel.
A YouTube channel is essentially a home page on YouTube where all your videos are posted. But it’s a more organized and strategic method of producing and marketing videos on an ongoing basis than simply throwing up a new video every two or three months. It’s like having your own TV show except that it’s on YouTube instead.
So what are the benefits to having your own YouTube channel? Here are a few off the top of my head:
- It’s free. It costs nothing to start a YouTube channel.
- You can drive targeted traffic to your website with every video.
- If you can consistently produce great video content that entertains and informs your audience, then you can attract a loyal following of viewers on YouTube.
- You can also monetize your video content on YouTube and turn it into a money-making channel as well.
- Having a popular YouTube channel is a great reputation management tool.
These are just a few of the benefits to having your own YouTube channel. There are plenty more. I’d encourage you to look into it for yourself.
5 Ways To Make Online Reviews Pay
Online reviews can help or hurt your business. If you get a lot of positive reviews, then it can certainly give a big boost to your online reputation. On the other hand, negative reviews can put a dent in your reputation. That is, unless you can find a way to turn those negatives into positives. That’s precisely what I’m going to teach you how to do today.
Here are 5 ways to turn negative reviews into a positive:
- Refrain from being a jerkwad – Instead of getting angry and lambasting the reviewer with insults for the entire world to see, take a step back and don’t do anything at all. Cool down first. After you have had a chance to calm down and think about what the reviewer said, then you can offer a level-headed response with some reason.
- Thank the reviewer – When you do respond, thank the reviewer for their input. Then, offer to resolve their situation amicably.
- Issue a sincere apology – Be sincere and apologize for the bad experience. Most businesses won’t apologize at all and most that do will do so badly. If you apologize sincerely and make the reviewer believe it, then you’ll be way ahead of your competition.
- Offer to fix the problem – If possible, send a private message to the reviewer offering to resolve their problem amicably. Offer a coupon or a discount on a future service. Maybe you can offer a free product or service on their next visit. Whatever it takes to make them a happy customer, do it. There’s a good chance you could turn a negative review into a positive review – and keep a customer.
- Leave your phone number - If you cannot send a private message through the review site, leave your phone number instead, and offer to have that reviewer call you so that you can resolve the problem. If you offer a discount or free service in lieu of the phone call, then you could turn a negative into a positive with just one phone call.
When it comes to online reviews, every review is a reputation management opportunity. Turn those negative reviews into an opportunity to perform an awesome service and see what happens.
Why Use StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is a website that is often billed as one of the most trafficked social media sites online, however, it rarely makes it to the top websites on the web list. I’ll let you decide what to make of that, but I think StumbleUpon is a great website to get to know for a few reasons.
First, StumbleUpon is notorious for sending websites tons of great traffic. It doesn’t take a lot of effort either.
Secondly, StumbleUpon is a website where you can discover other great websites on topics that interest you. There are primarily three ways to search for websites at StumbleUpon:
- Other Stumblers/Friends – You can search the Stumbles of your friends simply by visiting their Stumble pages, called blogs. If you download the StumbleUpon toolbar, you can do that directly through the toolbar. Just click on the Stumblers button and you’ll be taken to your list of friends where you can pick the friend and Stumble through their Stumbles.
- By Topic – Another way to search StumbleUpon is by topic. You have your favorite topics and StumbleUpon uses those to help you find websites related to those. Perform a search and find other websites like those you have Liked in the past.
- Channels – You can also search by channels. There is a YouTube channel, an All channel, a friends channel, an images channel, and a videos channel. These channels allow you to search for specific types of content based on your previous Likes.
So now that you know how to find websites through StumbleUpon, how do you promote them through StumbleUpon? Two ways.
The first way is to Like the website. This adds the site to your Stumble blog and you can add a description that allows you to elaborate on why you like the site. The second way is to share that web page with your friends. You can actually do both.
Often, it is best to send out your content to your friends first. Let someone else be the discoverer of your content. On StumbleUpon, whoever is the first person to Stumble a site is listed as the discoverer. You don’t want to get a reputation for being the discoverer of your own content over and over again. So try to encourage your friends to discover your content. You can then Like it after it has been discovered.
StumbleUpon is a great source of web traffic. If you use it effectively, it can deliver great traffic to your website.
Q&A Sites And SEO
SEOmoz is a leading SEO blog and they recently posted a very thoughtful essay on Q&A sites and the value of SEO. I encourage you to read the entire blog post, but I’ll offer a few highlights here.
For starters, there is a general encouragement that, despite Google’s recent farmer update, Q&A sites still are a great opportunity to build your own reputation and to do some back linking. If you’re not familiar with the farmer update, let’s just say that Google introduced an algorithm that put a slap on some of those how-to sites, what are generally referred to as “content farms.”
Interestingly, many of the sites that were affected are sites that are written by average Joes. These sites are HubPages, Squidoo, and Associated Content. Even EzineArticles, the popular article directory (and a few other article directories), took a hit. But many of the Q&A sites did not. This forms the basis of Pavel Israelsky’s argument.
I’ll have to hand it to Pavel. He does a good job of outlining why Q&A sites represent a great opportunity right now. Here are his six reasons:
- People Google more questions than generic keywords
- Q&A sites have grown in popularity in the last year
- Q&A pages rank high in the search results
- They also offer great diversification opportunities for your link portfolio
- People prefer to link to Q&A pages than to corporate-sponsored pages
- Targeted traffic means better conversion
I can’t really argue with any of those points. Keep in mind, however, that if you use Q&A sites to target your important keywords, be sure that you find out which questions related to those keywords are being asked in the search engines. That will be key to optimizing your Q&A posts. If you answer questions that are asked, try to optimize your answers as well.
Q&A sites are a relatively recent phenomenon. If they start getting spammed with useless content, you can expect another Google slap down, so don’t go hog wild. Just see the opportunity for what it is and approach it intelligently.
Does Your Internet Marketing Firm Communicate?
Does your Internet marketing firm communicate what they are doing with your website or is all you get a bunch of silence? In other words, are they explaining what they are doing and why they are doing it?
The attitude among many Internet marketing companies is that clients don’t understand and don’t care about the nuts and bolts. But we believe it’s your website and you should know what’s happening with it. There should be no secrets between your marketing firm and your company. None.
When there is silence from your Internet marketing company, that’s a recipe for blackhat SEO to creep in. Blackhat SEO is search engine optimization strategies that are not approved by the search engines. You can scan the news headlines and see some high profile companies who have been stilted by their Internet marketing companies because those companies used blackhat techniques that got their clients in trouble. You don’t want to become another statistic.
Ask your Internet marketing company what tactics they use before you hire them. Get them to show you a step-by-step plan for your website before they go to work. And don’t approve anything that you aren’t 100% legitimate. Otherwise, you could see your Internet marketing strategy in jeopardy.
Is SEO Still Important?
An article on WebProNews asks a very important question: “Has SEO Peaked?”
Of course, this is a question that gets asked once or twice a year. And I’m pretty sure the answer is always the same. Chris Crum concludes that it is still important, but it’s changing. Yep, I say. It’s changing alright. And there’s nothing we can do about it.
One of the ways in which SEO is changing is the way in which people are searching for information. It seems that more and more searchers are using social search instead of traditional search. Unfortunately, social search is something that Google hasn’t really excelled at. Which means that many webmasters are going to find that their biggest referrer is not Google. It could be something else.
In fact, the article goes on to say that the biggest source of web traffic for a lot of websites will be where they spend most of their attention – search engines or social media. That makes sense.
If you start seeing the majority of your web traffic coming from Twitter, it could be because you spend a lot of time on Twitter. If you start seeing it coming from Bing, then maybe it’s because you spend a lot of time optimizing for Bing traffic. So what’s the lesson here?
There’s no real lesson. It may be a cause of celebration. Website owners no longer need to feel tethered to Google. Then again, it may mean SEO is just a little bit more difficult.
Advertising To MILFNs
Chances are, if you’re a strapping young man between 18 and 25, you know a few MILFNs – Moms I’d Like To Farmville Neighborize. They’ve dropped their overalls and moved on to Cityville to build a thriving metropolis instead.
That’s what moms are doing these days. They’re playing Zynga games. They’ve traded in their soap opera cards and started playing Cityville, Farmville, and Frontierville – the triumvirate of Zynga games.
So how do you reach this new gaming demographic? Bing bribed them with Farmville dollars.
In the last day or so, I saw a Cityville offer to plant some sweet potatoes for charity. That made me wonder if Zynga game product placements might be down the road. Will Cityville citizens get a chance to build a community building named after a famous Las Vegas casino? Or maybe they’ll get a chance to name their streets after famous celebrity personalities.
Social media optimization has reached a new milestone. No longer are you relegated to bookmarking your content on such sites as Delicious (which, rumor has it, was sold by Yahoo recently) and Digg. Now, you may have opportunities to reach the 25-44 year old female demographic through Zynga social gaming.
What’s next? I don’t know, but I’m sure it will be interesting.
Risk-Free PPC
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Kick your PPC campaign off with some basic keyword research. We’ll search and find the best keywords for your business based on your landing page, your goals, your competition, and past marketing initiatives.
With PPC marketing, you can test your keywords before you use them in your organic marketing. It’s a great way to test new keywords and keyword groups. Why spend countless hours building landing pages and promoting them through social media and articles when you aren’t 100% confident of the keywords you are using? You can be confident in less than 24 hours just by testing them in PPC ads.
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15 Questions For Your Internet Marketing Firm
Before you hire an Internet marketing firm, you should interview them. Find out what they do and how they do it. I’m not talking about quizzing them on their trade secrets. I’m talking about finding out if they are ethical in their business practices and if they really understand Internet marketing principles.
Here are 15 questions you should ask your Internet marketing firm before you do business with them.
- How do you budget Adwords to simultaneously maximize the number of clicks and minimize cost?
- How do you track and handle leads when they come in to your firm?
- How do you write your ad copy so people will fill out your contact form or call you?
- How do you decide what web sites to get links from?
- How do you get a new website indexed by Google and out of the “sandbox” in only two weeks instead the normal three month’s time?
- How important is it for your website to be WC3 Compliant?
- Is there a penalty for putting too many keywords in your meta-tags?
- What are the benefits of a “content management system?” What are the drawbacks?
- How do you know when to use a broad match, phrase match or exact match in a Google Adwords campaign?
- Will inbound “sitewide” links get your site banned?
- How do you find keywords that no competitor is bidding on, but that convert at half the cost and twice the frequency of conventional keywords?
- How do you measure conversions on specific sites on Adword’s content network?
- How do you bid keywords appropriately, knowing you will get fraudulent clicks?
- How do you set up a tracking phone number? Why should you?
- Where should a contact form be on a page? Which pages should have them?
When it comes to Internet marketing, not all firms are created equal. Do a little probing. How does the company do business? Does their style mesh with yours?
iPhone Apps: A New Marketing Opportunity
Mobile marketing is not something we talk about much on this blog, but I would like to address an emerging opportunity for small business owners. iPhone apps.
It seems that everyone is interested in having their iPhone app now. There’s a good reason for this. iPhones are popular, almost everyone has one, and everyone who has one is tuned in through apps. In the future, iPhone apps are going to be the way many people log onto the Internet for routine business.
Think about this.
- If you own a book store, you could have an iPhone app that lets people put a book on hold – right through their iPhone.
- If you are the owner of an auto parts store, you could let people order their car parts through their iPhone, and even schedule delivery.
- Own a restaurant? Put your menu into an iPhone and take carry-out orders.
- Own a bowling alley? You could have an iPhone app that allows your customers to bowl on their phones, and when they’re not iPhone bowling they can reserve their lanes.
- A gardener can have an iPhone app that reports soil conditions based on weather, time of year, etc.
There’s really no limit to what you can do with an iPhone app. If you have an imagination you can come up with all sorts of things. The time for small businesses to take advantage of marketing and customer service through iPhone apps has come. Are you ready?
Good Marketing Begins With Research
The first step to any good marketing is research. But that can entail any number of things. Usually, it means
- Competitive intelligence
- Market research data
- Keyword research
- Industry background research
And that’s just a start. Take a look at one of our case studies to see how a success start with market research ended with a well thought out plan that made our client successful.
While research is important, going through the steps to learn about the competition, the competitive landscape of the playing field, and your own keyword research will not necessarily guarantee success. You’ll also have to implement your plan.
There are a lot of moving parts to an effective Internet marketing strategy. There are content development initiatives to oversee, paid search initiatives, social media opportunities to exploit, and some additional research along the way to uncover unseen opportunities that might arise during the course of a campaign.
When there is so much at stake for the future of a company, you cannot afford to hand your Internet marketing over to amateurs. You need a professional to manage the process from beginning to end.
First, do your research. Then, take what you find and mold it into a plan. Execute your plan aggressively and monitor. Internet marketing success is not an accident.
Chasing The Algorithm
Do you have a difficult time keeping up with Google’s algorithm? Do you try to follow it and make changes to your site every time a new algorithm change is announced, hoping that your changes are going to improve your search engine rankings? Here’s a word of advice: Stop doing that.
It’s a good thing that you are watching the search engines and seeing what they are doing. Keeping up with changes in the search engines and search technology is an important part of SEO and keeping your sites geared for search engine traffic, but that doesn’t mean you have to make changes to your website every time a new algorithm change is introduced.
In fact, most algorithm changes don’t require any changes at all. Instead, keep your eyes on the basics of SEO and let the search engines take care of the rest.
The search engines change their algorithms for different reasons. Sometimes they are correcting or compensating for other factors in the algorithm in order to balance out the importance of the factors being considered for ranking purposes. Other times, they are combating spam or addressing negative issues that affect the entire search community. Instead of guessing at what the algorithm means and how you should respond, focus on the basics and doing what is right.
World Class Videos At Great Prices
The age of Internet video has arrived in full force. It has become one of the most effective forms of online marketing and the options for video marketers are expanding all the time. You are not limited to YouTube, although YouTube is the most trafficked video sharing site online.
More and more, we see niche video marketing websites popping up. That’s good news.
- MusicTV Share, for instance, is a niche video website that caters to independent musicians and their fans.
- Jesus TV is a video website specifically geared toward a Christian audience.
- Then there’s Qube TV, the YouTube alternative that bills itself as the Right Wing video sharing site.
- Anime Lab is a niche video site focused on, you guessed it, anime.
- Teacher Tube is a video website dedicated to providing instructional videos on all sorts of topics.
- WonderHowTo is a niche website focused on providing how-to videos on a variety of topics.
These are just a few of the niche-related video websites online. There are plenty more. Video marketing is in and you can get started with great videos at an affordable cost.
For a free consultation on your video marketing needs, contact us today. It’s easier to get started than you think.
Why Web Design Is More Than Important
Your first impression is a big deal. And you only get a chance to make one. That’s why your web design has to be top notch, not just good.
There are three types of web design companies:
- Search engine optimizers who also do web design
- Companies that only do web design
- Companies that design killer websites that are SEOd well
While web design is important, it’s not so important that you should forget about search engine marketing. In fact, a good web design actually takes into consideration the latest SEO techniques and tactics with search engine rankings in mind.
In truth, it’s a balancing act. You balance a beautiful image with great rankings. When you play this balancing act well, it will show in increased traffic to your website and your web pages ranking for the important content you want to rank for. It’s a two-tiered system where both parts are equal.
Web design firms that only do web design can make your site look good, but they won’t get you ranked. You’ll end up having to hire an SEO company to make it rank, and sometimes your SEO company has to make changes to the website.
If you hire an SEO to do web design, then you run the risk of a site that doesn’t leave a good impression. There’s no reason you can’t have both good SEO and awesome web design.
Bing’s Farmville Experiment
We’ve reached a new level of social media euphoria. A story about Bing’s successful Farmville campaign is giving marketers something to think about. Maybe you should think about it too.
According to Bing, Farmville now has more visitors than Twitter. If that’s true, then Farmville could be the next big marketing arena. Or, let’s rephrase it, any of Zyng’a Facebook applications.
So what did Bing do? Essentially, they promised to give Farmville users farm cash if they became a fan of Bing on Facebook. A really simple thing, really. But it worked. Thousands of people responded. Many of them wrote about it on their own blogs. And now, Bing has 400,000 new fans. Voila!
Can you do it too? Maybe not on that scale, but I see no reason why any small business can’t wage a similar campaign through Farmville, Cityville, or any of the other thousands of Web applications out there in Internet game land. Think about all the places you can go: Yahoo, Apples’s iPod Touch, Fubar if you’re into online dating, Facebook, MMORPG.com, or just search for online multiplayer games.
What Bing did isn’t really new, but it does break new ground in social media marketing and online game playing. Now it’s your turn. How are you going to reach your customers in this new social media world?
Are Deals And Group Deals The Next Big Marketing Fad?
There has been a lot said in recent months about the various group deal sites – particularly Groupon and Living Social. Bing have now entered the fray with Bing Deals, and while it is really no more than a deal aggregator, it will make finding a deal easier for consumers. However, what is important to note is that Bing is teaming with DealMap, and they deliver thousands of local deals every day.
For many marketers, promoting their businesses through these channels may deliver more sales than through what is now consider ‘traditional social media’ channels (how quick the Internet moves – two years ago we spoke of how social media was the ‘new’ marketing option – now it’s ‘traditional’). If you have been offering special deals through Twitter, for example, you may find that sites like DealMap offer an even bigger stream of sales.
It begs the question, is social media too saturated for this type of marketing? Or more importantly, do you need to change your marketing strategy to match the habits of consumers. It’s clear that consumers are starting to prefer sites like Groupon and DealMap when looking for special deals. With these services really working hard to target the mobile market, and with mobile devices getting smarter, it makes sense that consumers will access them in larger numbers.
Groupon, Living Social, and DealMap are not for every business. However, they do offer a simple method of targeting consumers in their environment. Consumers don’t necessarily visit Facebook or Twitter to find a good deal – instead, they visit those special deal sites. If you are into special deals, then you may want to consider checking those sites out. Internet marketing is continuing to evolve. You need to evolve with it. You will be promoting where the customers are wanting to be promoted to, and that doesn’t happen too often.
Can Article Marketing Survive In A Brave New Online World?
Google’s recent changes to it’s search algorithm has caused quite a storm with the biggest casualties including article directories. Article marketing has been one of the core marketing tactics used for over a decade. It offers a unique opportunity for people to have their content published in places away from their own sites – sometimes even having their content reprinted on quality sites, or picked up by national publishers.
This is one situation where those who use article marketing can have a serious beef with the search engines. Over the years, these search engines have encouraged the use of article marketing, so long as the content was unique. Furthermore, users were encouraged to republished that content so long as they included the resource information at the end of the article.
Having been encouraged to use these marketing tactics, users now find their efforts will account for nothing. Links have not been followed for some time, and now the content will struggle to appear in search results. That’s a real slap down.
So what of the future? Does article marketing still have a future? I think it may have but it may need a real overhaul. My first thoughts run to sites like Google’s own Knol – has that been affected by the new algorithmic changes? My first impressions are that it hasn’t been affected at all and that could be the model that future article sites need to look at.
The Internet is steadily evolving, and from a search point of view I can understand the search engines not wanting to see the same articles being published across numerous sites. I also question whether or not some sites have their internal structure right. Article marketing will survive, the question will be – in what sort of format and where?
How Flawed Is The Google Farmer Update?
Google recently updated its algorithm and the result has seen Google take some heavy criticism. Labeled the ‘Farmer Update’, the update is reported to target content farms that are full of poor quality content. In the lead up to this update, much was said about Design Media, in particular it’s content site eHow. Reports to date suggest that eHow probably benefited more than it lost following the update.
At the same time, there are many sites crying poor because they copped a hit in search results. These are sites that are businesses and who have good reputations within the online community, certainly not ‘content farms’. The problem is, their sites have internal flaws which, to Google’s algorithm, look like content farms.
The problem with the algorithm change is a simple one. Just because you’re a content farm that doesn’t mean your content is poor. On the whole, eHow’s content is probably average to poor – but there are some very good articles mixed in with the good ones. And the same could be said for millions of ordinary websites, especially mom and dad style blogs.
For many website owners, especially those whose site is their business and their livelihood, the only way forward is to engage a professional to undertake an audit of their SEO strategies. Businesses tend to get caught up in these updates, often unintentionally, but the end results could cost them that business.
If you run an online business, particularly one that has hundreds or even thousands of pages, engage an independent SEO professional who can undertake that audit. Your website may be fine – but in ninety percent of cases, an SEO audit does pick up on errors. Who knows? Fix those little errors and you may climb even higher in the search rankings.