StoresOnline.com Seminar Watch Out!!!

So I get a fancy mailer from Storesonline.com today for a FREE Denver Dinner Conference.

It says "Make Serious Money On The Internet"

They throw the Google, Yahoo!, eBay & MSN logos at the top of the page and then begin their sales pitch on why I should go and bring a guest to the FREE LUNCH OR DINNER SEMINAR.

Now I am not saying they are scam artists, but there is a t least a significant amount of bait and switch going on.

First of all-no meal until the 90 minute presentation-no big deal, and it's probably a good idea to create a social and casual environment after a seminar. I make think of a way to use this idea to some degree for my seminars.

What really annoys me and raises a red flag is the bait and switch:

They have a picture of 2 iPod shuffles in the mailer, and right below the pictures it says; "FREE MP3 Player* for you and your guest."

I thought-"Cool-Maybe I will go and get a $70 iPod shuffle and check it out."

However, the "*" goes like this: "Storesonline.com offers offers goods which would allow purchasers to develop a website for selling the product of their choice [re: software]" it goes on to say you may choose to receive a free MP3 that is NOT an iPod shuffle, or receive a mail-in coupon for redemption of an iPod shuffle plus S & H.

If one of the tactics they are going to teach you is to bait your prospects in full color and switch in the fine print, and you are uncomfortable with that, then I would avoid this "sales pitch" disguised as a seminar.

To be fair, they do not claim to be honest or to have integrity, but with so many scam artists out their I have to recommend avoiding this program at this point.

Last, if you want to schedule a truly educational seminar that is not a sales pitch, please contact me at your convenience. My name is Dan Stratford and my number is 720-985-7945.

As you can see, while I am by no means a Saint-I am not trying to hide anything.

For attorney marketing visit my www.LawyerMarketingExpert.com blog.
For Denver Internet Marketing visit Integrity Internet Consulting.

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Internet Marketing and Your Domain Name

Here is the "pitch":

“Buy my domain name for ‘X’ thousands or hundreds of dollars to improve your site optimization?”

Should you pay this much for a domain name?

Basic questions you need to ask and why:

1-Is this domain name important for your branding?

If it is important to your branding, then yes, there has got to be some amount that is worth it to you to pay for the “.com” version of your name. You need to do the cost benefit analysis based on your needs, the importance of your brand relative to the long term potential revenue your site is going to generate for you, and to what degree that revenue will by impacted by your domain name.

2-How will your domain name affect your revenue in terms of SEO?

In a competitive market, a keyword based domain name will not get your site to the top of Google. As I have mentioned before on previous blogs there is no magic bullet for optimization. Your domain name, or more specifically, your URL, should be just one part of your overall optimization strategy.

When you see a site that comes up number one on Google for competitive search terms, it’s because they have a better website from Google’s perspective relative to the search terms used, NOT just because they own the domain name “hotels.com”, or “Lawyers.com”. That is part of it-but in competitive markets it is just a small part of the overall strategy-and it is not necessary.

The site “Lawyers.com” is usually at the top of Google for very competitive search terms like “Lawyer”, “Lawyers”, “Attorney” and “Attorneys”, but mostly for reasons that have to do with site design, site relevancy, the quality and quantity of the content’ how often it is updated, as well as the quantity and quality of the links.

Of course, there are more reasons to have a great domain name besides optimization:

Lawyers.com gets about 25% of its traffic from people just typing in the domain name “lawyers.com” due to the branding efforts through television and the common sense approach to finding a website without utilizing a search engine. However, if you visit a site like lawyers.com, hotels.com, bedandbreakfast.com, or cars.com and have a horrible user experience you will not be back. Investing in a great domain name without investing in a great website can be a big waste of money.

3-Could your domain name affect your Pay Per Click program?

I suppose if your domain name could encourage people to click through to your ad instead of your competitors’ sites, then it could help you save money on PPC. If you have a higher click through rate than others you should pay less than they do per click yet still be above them in the sponsored results.

So how much should you pay for a domain name?

How about 1 million dollars? That’s how much was paid for www.business.com back in the 90s if I remember correctly.

Of course, you could take a different route altogether and just come up with some original but silly name, misspell it, and make billions of dollars.

That’s what the guys who started “Google” did. Did you know the name was supposed to be “Googol”, which was short for the word “Googolplex”. If I remember correctly, Googolplex is the number “1” with a hundred zeros after it.

As the story goes; the founders of Google were picking up their million dollar check from their first investor. The investor wrote the check to “Google” instead of “Googol”. Rather than ask him to write the check again they changed the name of their company.

At least that’s the story I heard and have yet to hear it disputed. Even if it wasn’t true it falls into the category of “If it isn’t true it should be” stories.

Denver Internet Marketing

I found my "Denver Internet Marketing specialist on Craigslist". I heard this today from an attorney. Unfortunately, this attorney's rankings were not all that great. On the one hand he was very well ranked for 8 of the top 100 searches relevant to his firm, on the other, he was, well...missing in 92% of the top 100 search terms!

Alas-he was probably getting what he was paying for. Or was he?

If I am paying an Internet marketing expert in Denver $3,000 a month to dominate my market (which is still at least $7,000 less than what I used to spend on the Dex yellow pages in Denver), vs. $1,000 a month to reach 10% of my market-which deal is better?

It could depend on how many new Denver or Colorado area clients I could take on. In this case, the attorney was not concerned about getting "too many" personal injury cases. After all, if the traffic is driven to their site which is on the first page of Google they are getting the first crack at the best prospects available in the Denver market via Internet marketing.

No, this was a case I see too often of Denver law firm or local business not taking the time to:

1. Track their Internet marketing results
2. Do the required keyword research to see where and how their efforts should be invested in search engine optimization or Pay-Per-Click marketing
3. Trying to get by with a cheaper Denver Internet marketing solution that will cost them money in the long run.

If you want to avoid these mistakes contact Integrity Internet Consulting-a local Denver Internet marketing firm.

If you are an attorney then please contact Dan Stratford @ 720-985-7945 for a comprehensive analysis and consultation paid for by LexisNexis.