Marketing Success with Web Marketing
Published December 9, 2011 | 
Proven Market Strategies
Have a Website and Publicize it – It never ceases to amaze me that there are actually businesses out there that still don’t have a website. I was at meeting a few months ago and met someone who said he was a writer focused on the Web. When he gave me his business card, I immediately noticed his card didn’t include his website, so then I asked for his website URL. I was both surprised and amused that he had just tried to convince me he could write for the Web, but didn’t have a website, not even a blog on a free site.
Understand clearly that it doesn’t matter how much personal contact and networking you do, or even how much social media networking you do across multiple applications, you really do still need a website. The reasons should be very clear by now, that your potential clients and customers will always want to see samples (i.e. portfolio, etc.) of your work, find more information about you, and especially if you’re a consultant or expert in a specific field. In addition, they’re almost certainly going to want to read many of the things you’ve written about your field of expertise.
To take it one step further, you can control what can be viewed on your own website. But, you have absolutely no control over what ads show up right next to your posts or what the rules are in effect on any social media sites.
Now, if you can’t really afford what it may take to pay a good web developer for your website design, be sure and set up at least a simple website to begin with. You or someone you know can create your site using free or low cost website hosting and design tools. Check out A Free Web Presence with over 2 dozen FREE hosting and design sites. Once you’ve completed your website, be absolutely sure it gets listed on your business brochures, your business cards, any association and member directories, free directories, and any places you come across where you can add your business listing.
A fully functioning website is a very good thing – So there’s another situation I find staggering, and it is the enormous number of small business owners and entrepreneurs who join up at local business networking groups, which is actually a good idea, but they have non-working websites actually listed in the group’s membership directory.
It is understandable that occasionally it may be attributed to the directory listing being published with a domain name typo. But more often than not, it has the clear appearance of the business or person that owned the domain name simply let it lapse, and worse yet, never completed the website set up and design. Don’t let that happen to you.
It’s also of great importance to be sure you register the domain name yourself (instead of letting the web developer do it), and that your credit card information is kept up-to-date at the domain registrar. Check your association directory listing closely, especially after it’s published, to be certain there are no typos and the website link really works. Recheck each page on your site to make certain there are no links going to blank pages or even worse, to pages “under construction.”
Don’t ever stop marketing – Don’t ever stop marketing efforts. It can be very tempting, as many people have given in to the urge that once business picks up and sales begin to flow on a more regular schedule to slow things down. Understand it’s natural to give in to the temptation and ease off on some of the marketing and networking efforts you’ve established. But that can be a sometimes fatal business mistake difficult to truly recover.
You need to maintain at least the same level of marketing effort in order to keep business coming in regularly, and as long as your company’s capacity can continue to deliver the same superior quality products and service, your business success and staying power will continue to grow as well.
New Media (R)evolution – A Look Back
Published August 23, 2011 | 
Looking back in history, it seems the dinosaurs had it easy because they were able to dominate the landscape for more than 100 million years, and at a time when any evolution occurred gradually. Fast forward to now and any change today comes many times quicker. It seems like yesterday we were mailing press releases to our good friend the journalist at the local newspaper, the next year we were faxing on thermal paper and now, well now things have certainly changed, and at a pace that is hyper.
Contrasting asteroids colliding with earth millions of years ago, causing the dinosaurs to become extinct, the arrival of social media and web technology and the incredible volume of information that’s readily available merely changes the marketing landscape forever, rather than wiping communication professionals, or their relevance completely out of the marketing picture.
A very recent study of the 2010 Inc. 500 (a list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies compiled annually by Inc. magazine) found some very important trends including approximately 83% of these companies use at least one social media channel. Even more, 50% of them have corporate blogs and 56% believe social media is “very important” component to their business and marketing strategies going forward. In addition to a strategically planned outreach to customers and prospects, the same search engines and social networking sites are also being used to not only recruit employees, but to connect and develop stronger relationships with vendors and partners.
There’s really no refuting that the immediate past, present and future marketing strategies, important public relations, crucial investor relations and all aspects and critical components of communication have changed forever. And will continue to change.
Interestingly, major news outlets are still trusted sources of news and information for some market segments or niches, which means media relations still plays a big role in reach and distribution, but the real questions are for how long, and which demographics? Even on Twitter, Facebook and other social sites, audiences still reference traditional publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal (especially their digital editions) when they want to pass along interesting stories, facts and articles.
The proverbial writing is on the wall for all to see, that the same major news outlets can only maintain high-value by the consumer with content that is fresh, current and even real-time in many cases, a daunting task for traditional print, television and radio media that isn’t evolving and adapting at the same rapidly increasing rate of technological change in the market.
Linking Relationships
Published October 8, 2010 | What you need to understand about linking relationships between Web pages is that they help search engines locate n
ew content and then determine (to a limited extent) how highly regarded that content might be. Regrettably, there has been a great deal of misinformation shared through the years with respect to the value and significance of linking relationships as a component within search engine optimization.
Upon closer examination, linking relationships offer value outside of search engine optimization. An SEO operation should be simply one feature of a much larger Web marketing strategy. You should know that a very valuable linking relationship offers brand visibility and traffic in spite of whether search engines notice and make us of the linking relationship. As a result, it is very important to assess linking relationships based on how they aid a Web site based upon whether search engines either do not exist or if they exist, then do not appraise links.
In looking at where search engines examine links, any link might or might not deliver value, and some Web sites cannot deliver value by way of their links because those pages have yet to be crawled and accurately indexed. There is always a risk that some pages will be filtered and thus receive a penalty for violating search engine guidelines, and some pages might be constructed so as to deliver as little value as possible.
Upon closer examination of the value links pass, they include (1) Visibility – If a person notices a link, they see a path to your content. (2) Anchor text – If a search engine permits links to deliver anchor text, links boost importance and relevance. (3) Traffic – Links on pages with significant traffic tend to drive traffic to their destinations. (4) Trust – The fact that a highly reliable page links to another shows the destination should be highly reliable. (5) Link Weight – Referred to as “PageRank” by Google, Link Weight is used by search engines in a number of ways.
Most people incorrectly consider that Link Weight or PageRank is significant to search engine optimization. In consideration of everything else being of equal value, Link Weight might actually be the determining feature more times than not, but frequently Link Weight has considerably less impact on search engine visibility and results than people in general have come to believe.
Principles of Search Engine Optimization
Published October 1, 2010 | 
To understand search engine optimization you should begin what the traditional objective of SEO is, which is to produce a positive visual impact leading arbitrary or random searchers to click through search results listings to specifically identified destinations. It is by and large understood that the very first position (top of first page) in search results listings is the most advantageous in that the greater part of user generated click-throughs traditionally take place on the first position. On the other hand, experienced searchers will more than likely choose and click on the most obviously pertinent listing in the search results or many times on more than one listing.
As a search optimizer your goal should be to craft a persuasive visibility in search results that serves to drive traffic to a specific targeted website. 
Nevertheless, for a target website that requires more than just arbitrary traffic (requirement of a specific action), you as the search optimizer should be driving vital convertible traffic to the destination. In other words, the searchers who decide to click on the listing in the search results should be sensibly convinced they will find what they are looking for prior to clicking on the link.
You need to be aware of four factors that directly affect your Web content’s showing in search results including (1) What YOU do with your page, (2) What OTHERS do on their pages, (3) What the SEARCH ENGINES do with specific data they collect about Web pages, and (4) What informational content people SEARCH for.
While you cannot dictate what other’s do with their pages or even what people search for, you do have power over what you do on your own pages and the search engines always encourage Webmasters to present some guidance for how to index their respective Web pages. Business-related search engine optimization must always address four specific areas in order to achieve success including (1) keyword research, (2) how content is organized, (3) search visibility, and (4) linking.
Additional Prioritization Variables to Consider
Published September 14, 2010 | 
Many times there are other variables to take into consideration when attempting to establish correct prioritization to achieve the best results for SEO, and these additional variables might include:
- The lifetime value of item client is important because if the sale of any given item is made, then the current value of the sale cannot the only consideration, since it is very important that you should also take into consideration the average lifetime value of the “purchaser” of the item being examined.
- It is important to clearly understand the profitability or how profitable is the product or service you provide, and obviously, the more profitable items in most cases are more desirable to promote, but you must be completely familiar with what is most profitable for you.
- You must understand with confidence your ability to scale or fulfill with your inventory control and order processing or if your ability to fulfill is limited. If so, you must determine other products and services with more
potential that might be a better priority in both the near and long term.
- You should have a firm knowledge of your competitive advantage, and most importantly is it a well-defined competitive advantage (in terms of price, quality, delivery time etc.) that can be leveraged to increase the probability of sales?
More often than not, you will find that the keyword terms with comparatively high search volumes and low competition are the best opportunities, and of course don’t forget, relevance must be always be factored into this equation as well.
You should always keep in mind that in addition to closely examining volume vs. competition, it often helps to look at the additional prioritization variables, and they shouldn’t be mistakenly overlooked.