The Truth About Internet Marketing-SEO, PPC and Social Media Marketing

Google Adwords Click to Call Bidding & Setup

2012-01-03T07:12:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I think the Google people think they are so smart they just have to write what they think they should write with regards to rules and answers rather than what would make sense to actual humans. The other option is that they just are not that smart. I suppose another option is that I am just not good at understanding their systems and communication process, because on some occasions I feel like I do when I cannot find what I am looking for at the grocery store and it is right in front of me.

Anyway, here is my latest correspondence. I would post it in their help forums but I can only seem to figure out how to post a new question, not a new answer...

I was trying to setup a click to call feature on one of my clients Google Adwords PPC programs. Don't know how I missed this, but I do not think it was obvious that this was the issue during setup.

After setting up the campaign I bid $10/ call for the CPP program. After all, if we were willing to pay $3 per click, then $10/call seemed reasonable. However, the system says my bids were "ineligible". So I emailed Google and here is the response they sent to me-my comments are in ALL CAPS.

Hello Dan,

Thanks for writing in.

Dan, the click to call feature is available for your campaign. However if
you enable the campaign, all click to call clicks will be charged a flat
fee of $1. OF GREAT-THEN WHY LET ME BID MORE THAN $10?

Maximum cost-per-phone call (CPP) is the maximum price you're willing to
pay each time a user manually dials your Google forwarding number. This
feature is only available to call extensions users in the US and UK.

In your campaign, it is not possible to enable cost per phone-call and
change the call cost based on various factors. This is because for the CPP
to be eligible, it requires a certain number of clicks and click-per-call.

Dan, as our campaign has not yet received any clicks, the cost per call
feature is not currently available. I recommend that you enable the
campaign again so that you receive 30 clicks and at least around 17 click
to calls in the last 30 days. OK-SO I AM NOT ELIGIBLE FOR A CLICK UNTIL I GET A CLICK, OR ARE YOU SAYING I AM NOT ELIGIBLE FOR A CLICK TO CALL UNTIL I RECEIVE ANY CLICK?

I hope this helps. Do write back in case of any queries.

We value your feedback. You may receive a satisfaction survey in the next
24 hours--please fill it out. It's a very short survey (we promise!) and
your feedback will help us improve our customer service.

Sincerely,

Karthik
The Google AdWords Team

I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY.

Business Website Videos

2010-12-15T09:32:00.000-08:00

I am asked all of the time; "What is the benefit of putting a video on my website?", and the follow up question; "How much time and/or money should I invest in putting a video for my site?"

Of course, this always leads to more questions...

What is the purpose of the video?

Are you trying to build trust and credibility?

Is it to build a more personal relationship with your clients or prospective clients?

Are you trying to improve your search engine rankings?

Are you trying to show how a process, product or your business works?

Who is your audience?

One of the first steps I would take is to take a look at what other businesses are doing in your area and around the country. Many videos can be found on YouTube, but you will need to go through some sites to see how other businesses are using videos on their sites.

If you take the time to do this, you will likely see videos that will give you some great ideas for how you may want to use video. You will also see videos that make you cringe.

1-High-end/high quality videos.

Why use a videographer as opposed to a do it yourself scenario?

If you do not, you may do more harm to your image than not having a video at all.

You may have fun shooting the video. You may have done your darndest to make it look incredible. Rarely does that translate into a video someone else will be impressed by. As you look at videos on other sites you will see some absolutely horrible videos that try to look professional and fail miserably.
(By the way, there is a great time and a place for very cheap/free videos, and I will discuss that in point "2-" below)

How much should you spend on a high-end video?

These types of videos are shot by a "professional" or "semi-professional" videographer. They usually require a half day to full day of shooting, professional lighting, a story board, at least a "loose script" and after the shooting a significant amount of time editing.

I have seen good quality videos for as low as $695, but these are often very hit and miss because the company selling them usually has very little control over who actually shows up to shoot the video. They tend to use a national network of full and/or part-time videographers. As a result you may end up with the equivelent to a nightmare version of "the cable guy"-and often you do not know until they show up how good or bad they will be.

I would ask not just for references from the company, but references from the actual videographer who is going to do the work. You may get a very good result from this type of service, or you may be very disatisfied. It is a crapshoot.

Important: many of the video services that large companies sell that do not specialize in videos but sell them as an add-on product are reselling the same $695 video service for $1,500-$3,000. They still offer some advantages in that at least you have a big company backing the service, but they have very little control over who shows up. The sales rep that sold you the video will often try to show up the day of the shoot to help make sure things go smoothly, but he or she often has little control over who the videographer will be.

If you can spend more than $695-say $2,000-$20,000+, then I would look for a local company or individual that allows you to see some of the work done by the people who will be working for you. Again, you don't just want to see their portfolio of videos, you want to find out about how the process goes and specifically who will be working with you.

A good quality 60 second to 120 second video will likely cost you $1,500 +, but you may have to spend more than that to find someone with a great track record that you can trust. As you know; time is money. If you spend 1/2 a day working with a cheap videographer and the end result is not worht puttng on your site because it will actually hurt your image-how much would THAT cost you?

2-When can I use a free, cheap or YouTube type video?

First of all, I have seen a number of businesses utilize video clips from shows they have been on and commercials they run on TV. You already have these, so why not post them on your site and on YouTube?

The two videos I put on this blog post are examples of videos I should be posting every day-but only on a blog, or a place on my website that people go to to "hear from the Dan". You can build trust, relationship-even "intimacy" in the most appropriate sense of the word with these types of videos.

It enables people to see the "real" you and determine whether or not you are someone they want to work with. They don't expect it to be nor do they want it to be an over produced video because they want to learn something about what you do and who you are. You can utilize these types of videos in addition to a professional video you put on your home page, but don't try to replace a professional video with one of these "blog" type videos.

You can shoot these types of 30 second to 2 minute videos in your office from your computer's camera (or buy a pc camera for $40 or less), or even use your smart phone. I told myself when I purchased my iPhone 4 I was going to use it all the time to blog post because it has a "video yourself feature". I have a hard time getting around to doing it, and so will you, unless you make it a daily or weekly habit.

All you need to do is commit 5-10 minutes to shoot the video and post it to your blog. It may take you longer the first time you do it, but as you do it more regularly you may be able to keep it below 5 minutes.

This type of blog post is easier than even writing a blog post, therefore you can do more of them and possibly every day.

SEO Benefits: This type of activity can help you with your search engine optimization efforts, because search engines are actually "listening" to videos now, so they are great ways to add more content to your site for the search engines to index.

My friends criticize the professional looking photo I have on my lawyer marketing site because they know it is not even my real smile. It's a professional pose, and it is appropriate for where I placed it on that blog. My less professional looking blogs have pictures of me mountain biking, playing with my kids, etc. The point is that like pictures professional videos build your "professional credibility", the blog type videos build relationships and and a more personal trust.

I hope you found this information valuable. It is not rocket science. If you have good common sense you probably resonate with much of what is in this post. If you have new ideas you would like to share, or any questions, please feel free to post them here!

Of course, you can always give me a call for free consultation.

Happy Holidays!

Bobby Dean - No Sausage

2010-08-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

Some of you have heard me talk about my buddy Bobby, well here he is on TV today: Way to go Bobby!!! Way to represent!

Bobby Dean Video

This Saturday at Restoration Community Church

2010-08-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

Message from Ron Johnson today...

Ready to summit? All summer we have been on a spiritual journey together through our Happy Trails series. This week we will conclude our series by talking about the traits of the spiritually mature and how to reach our spiritual potential in this life time.

I love our church. I tell those who have not come that we have the greatest people you could ever meet in our community. God is doing something unique here. He is making us into a one of a kind church with a special destiny. I thank God this morning for the honor to be a part of your lives and what God is doing among us. Let's pray we meet God in a special way Saturday night. I look forward to seeing you then.

Blessings,

Ron

Ron Johnson
Restoration Community Church in Denver Colorado

Improving Your Online Presence Part 6: Video Blogging & Marketing

2010-08-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

Videos and SEO.

Video blogging is a great way to improve your online presence.

Why post videos online?

Content, content, content. The search engines yearn for it, and you need to be providing more and better content than your competitors.
People are watching more and more videos every day. Don't believe me? Don't take my word for it: search "how many people watch videos online".
It's a great way to communicate to your prospects and customers.

Mistakes to avoid:

Don't worry too much about the quality of the videos that you put on a blog. You want quantity, not quality from a production perspective. The new iPhone 4 is a perfect tool for recording videos.
DO make certain that the videos you put on your site look good and represent your business in a professional manner.
DO make certain you have great content on your site. No one wants to have their time wasted watching a video of someone who cannot communicate well, or with bad information.
Relax and be natural-DON'T read what you are going to say. It makes you look ridiculous!

Enough for today. There is a lot more to discuss about videos. Where should you host them? How much should you pay for a professional video?

I will post more on this topic soon...

Improving Your Online Presence Part 5: How to Utilize Social Media for Marketing Your Business

2010-03-21T23:58:00.000-07:00

Social Media Marketing Strategy Development
I suspect that the followers of this blog were more interested in this topic in this series "Improving Your Online Presence" than any other topic.
I presented on this topic in front of a group of small business owners a few weeks ago, and to be honest, at least one person was frustrated because I was asking as many questions as I was answering.
It probably has to do with my "Jesuit" education, but I believe the best way to find better answers is to ask better questions.
In the midst of one small business owners frustration she asked "How do I utilize Linked In, Twitter or Facebook to gain high value clients?"
My answer; "That's a great place to start."
In other words; you need to ask a lot of really good open ended questions to get your brain moving in the right direction.
Once you know your business goals, then start applying questions around social media and those business goals like the business owner I mentioned above.
Simple, right?

Ok-ok - let me get to the part where I give some helpful advice on social media marketing.
First of all, assuming you understand your business goals, the next step is determining how social media might help you achieve those goals.
While I have not heard of any type of business that cannot benefit in some way from social media, there are two things you need to know from the start:

It is likely that your social media strategy is going to be partially or almost completely unique to your business.
Spending a lot of time on social media may not be an efficient way for you to market your business online.

In fact, just as there were many businesses that blindly threw millions at Internet marketing back in the late 1990s and early 2000s without first developing an ROI based strategy, there is a risk that businesses will do the same with social media marketing. There is a lot of buzz around social media marketing, it is considered cool and sexy by some right now, but that doesn't mean that just jumping into to social media is going to make or break your business. You are probably at more risk of wasting time and money than making money from social media. Whatever you do, make certain you do not fail to look at search engine optimization, pay per click marketing or offline marketing.

The best advice I can give you on social media marketing is that you need to be prepared to invest resources to make it work. Which is not so different from offline social networking efforts - it takes resources, but the right work can be very beneficial for your business.

Step one: Determine how social media can help you meet your goals. In order to do this you are going to have to spend some time learning about social media. You can either spend time on the Internet or reading books on social media. You could also hire a consultant. Of course, you need to determine if you have more time or more money. If you are really busy and your time is very valuable, then it may make more sense to hire someone to develop a social media plan for you. Just make sure they take the time to understand your goals, and that the road map they give you to meet those goals has measurable results.
How much time do you need to invest? At least in the neighborhood of 10-20 hours.

Step 2: Once you have come up with a plan, you need to determine if it is going to be worth it to implement the plan. It not only takes some resources to develop a plan, it is going to take even more resources to implement it. Again, this is a balancing of time and money. Your time may be better spent doing other things to grow your business. If you have come up with a good plan, you are going to need to dedicate a significant amount of time weekly or daily to implementing it. How much time? I would estimate 1-10 hours for setup, and 2-40 hours a week of work-depending on the details of your plan, of course.

Step 3: You are going to need to track and analyze the results, make adjustments and implement the adjustments. While social media may be out of its "infancy" stage, it is still in the "toddler" stage. If you are not tracking and analyzing results, you are at significant risk of wasting a painful amount of time and/or money.

Here are some good resources for learning more about social media marketing:

Good luck-and if you need any help feel free to call me at 720-279-1876 for a free initial consultation.

Improving your online presence Part 4: Adding the right kind of content to your website

2010-03-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

I remember back in the 1990s when doing something akin to simply changing a comma to a period every day on your website might improve your rankings on the search engines. Assuming you are doing everything as good or better than your SEO competitors, making a slight change to your website might help, but the chances of it making a difference are slim. Nowadays, you need to have a strategy for adding content to your site on a regular basis. Of course, if your site is not already well optimized relative to your competitors, adding content may not help you meet your SEO goals. There are other reasons to add content to your website, especially if your site is a resource for others. However, if you want to help your SEO rankings you need to have a specific content building strategy, and you probably should invest in an SEO expert to help you maximize content building and SEO efforts.

I like the idea of having a blog on your site, but here are some other ideas for adding content to your site:

Product Reviews.
Press releases.
Client testimonial.
Client success stories and case studies.
A FAQ page you update regularly.
All of the above could be done in short video snippets.

Important things to remember:

The content you ad to your site needs to be unique
Be careful about adding content stuffed with keywords
Look for internal linking opportunities for your keywords within the content you add to your site
Don't forget to format your Heading tags and Meta-data correctly when you add new content to your site
Try to get external links that go directly to your new content, not just to your home page.

Adding content can be tedious, but if you develop a plan for updating your website's content on a regular basis you will have a much better chance of having a positive impact on your web presence.

Good luck-and if you need any help feel free to call me at 720-279-1876 for a free initial consultation.

Improving your online presence part 3:Track Your Results

2010-03-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

If you do not sufficiently track your results, the odds are that you will waste money on marketing and advertising programs that do not work.

What should you track?

Conversions
Gone are the days of tracking only site traffic. You need to be tracking the results of your Internet marketing and offline marketing efforts at the conversion level. This can mean conversion to a lead or conversion to a sale-BOTH should be tracked.
For those of us selling products via a shopping cart on our websites and driving traffic via Pay Per Click marketing this can be as simple as placing the right code on our site. This will enable us to track which keyword search led to which sale so we can adjust our PPC campaign for optimal results.
However, most businesses do not sell their products or services via a shopping cart on their website. Most businesses rely on offline customer interactions to secure sales, and some have sales cycles of up to 2 years.
The more sophisticated your sales process, the more sophisticated your conversion tracking needs to be. This could be as simple as putting a tracking phone number on your website, or it could be much more involved. You may need to utilize multiple tracking phone numbers, integrate your tracking system into your CRM or even invest in a sophisticated marketing automation software system. This can get more complicated when you are integrating your offline marketing (but still necessary).
How much should you spend on tracking your conversions?
If you spend $1,000 a month on marketing, you probably do not want to spend $1,000/month on tracking. However, you should probably spend $1-200.
If you spend $10,000/month on your marketing and advertising campaigns, then it probably makes sense to spend $1-$2,000/month on conversion tracking.l
In both cases, if you can improve your ROI or CPA by 10% or more this is a worthwhile investment. Many times a well integrated, monitored and professionally analyzed conversion tracking system can yield up to a 60% improvement in results. Well worth the investment.
Types of traffic
Many business owners or marketing professionals receive many reports from Webtrends, Awstats, Webalizer or Google analytics, but they are not sure what they should be analyzing.
You certainly should be looking at unique visitors vs. repeat visitors, bounce rates, time spent on site, the pages visited, the last page visited before exiting, etc. Most reporting tools will easily show you this data. You can also look at paid traffic vs. organic traffic, and branded vs. non-branded traffic. These require a little more sophisticated knowledge of utilizing, sorting and organizing the data. Nothing can completely replace human analysis by someone who knows your business and the goals of your marketing programs.
If you are utilizing SEO, you should track the external back links to your site and your rankings on Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
If you are engaged in any type of Search Engine Optimization efforts, you should track your site with ranking reports and back link reports. Google webmaster tools will give you insight into this data for free, and there are some paid programs you can utilize that may be a bit more user friendly and provide some enhanced analysis capabilities.
You also need to regularly perform keyword analysis, which is an art and science in and of itself.

I hope you found this information helpful.
Do me a favor - if you see any typos in this post or have any questions please let me know via the comment section. Of course, for more detailed information on the topics discussed above you can follow the links to my Internet marketing website.and I am available via the phone for consulting.
In your initial call I will spend 15-30 minutes with you for free.
You can call me (Dan Stratford) anytime at 720-279-1876.

Improving your online presence part 2

2010-03-04T23:12:00.000-08:00

Part 2: Fix your website!

At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, you really need to fix your website. My website is about search engine optimization, pay per click marketing, social media marketing, and all of that Internet marketing stuff. I do not spend as much time time updating my website as I should. It probably does not convert as well as it should (I am reminding myself now that I need to simplify my home page), but it is setup correctly-for the most part.
Here are some basic things you need to do to get your website up to snuff. If you don't have your website setup correctly, anything else you do is going to have to fight like a salmon swimming upstream.
Assuming you have built a website that tells the human visitors about what you can do for them, this is what you need to do to let the search engines know what your website is about:

Have integrity based meta data.
Your meta data needs to match your pages. Not exactly, but don't put anything in your keyword, description, or title tags that is not actually on the page they are describing. Don't repeat keywords and keyword phrases over and over and over again, but be clear in your meta data what the page is about. If you do this, then all of your meta-data will be unique from page to page, assuming all of your pages are unique.
I hear different numbers regarding how many characters should be in each area, but here are some general numbers to follow:
Title Tags: about 70 characters
Description Tags: about 160 characters
Keyword Tags: About 4-9 keywords or keyword phrases, about 100 characters. Bonus advice: don’t repeat any individual keyword more than 3 times, and don’t repeat any keyword phrases at all.
Fix your Heading tags:
1 unique “H1” tag for each page-give your page a title that tells the SEs what it is about.
If it makes sense to have more than one H2 or H3 tag, then go for it. Have at least 1 H2 tag.
Have an xml sitemap-and keep it updated
Submit your xml sitemap to Google analytics
Setup a Google analytics account
Setup a Google webmaster account
Fix your URLs
If possible, format your URLs like this:
Main Keyword Phrase should be dashed in URL
Example: http://www.domainname.com/keyword-keyword-keyword
NOT:
http://www.domainname.com/ keywordkeywordkeyword
http://www.domainname.com/ keyword_keyword_keyword
Important: Needs to be unique for each page and relevant to each page

There are a lot of other things that you will hear and you should pay attention to some of them; “flash is bad” (not necessarily true), “what about 404s” and “403s” and “errors”, “301 redirects”, “blah-blah-blah”. These are important, but not for discussion here. You should address those other issues, but if you are not doing what I suggest in this post, you will be fighting to swim upstream with everything else you do.

You always have the option to call me for consulting-720-279-1876. I offer free advice and direction over the phone, and if it makes sense for us to work together, that may also be an option.

If you saw any typos-please let me know by commenting on my blog post!

10 Things you can do to improve your Internet presence

2010-02-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

In no particular order...

1-Blog
2-Fix your website
3-Track your results
4-Add content to your website
5-Utilize Social Media
6-Create videos
7-Utilize Press releases
8-Have a story written about you and/or your business in a print magazine
9-Make the most of your links
10-Hire an honest consultant
11-Bonus: Don't forget about local search.

All of these can improve your web presence and search engine optimization efforts. Sounds so simple, doesn't it? The question is; how do you implement these 11 strategies?

Over the next few weeks I will be answering that question on this blog, so come back here for more information, sign up for an RSS feed, or post a comment here that you want to be added to my newsletter emailed out monthly and you will get the updates you need.

You can also call me directly for a free 15 minute or so conversation at 720-985-7945. Visit my Internet Marketing website anytime. It is full of a lot of good information and not just a sales pitch.

So number one: "Blog"

Most everyone agrees you should blog at some level (having written that-often it is a waste of time!), but there are ways to blog that will benefit you, and ways that won't.

Here are some reasons people blog, along with my comments on how this reason may be of benefit to you.

1-They like to write about their lives:
Call it narcissism, egomania, or simply extroverted behavior-some people like to blog about their lives. I have done this in the past with a group of friends from all over the country and it is cool how over the years we have stayed in touch-although lately we have all been blogging a lot less and using Facebook, Twitter, and on the professional side; Linked In.

What's the benefit? Well, if it makes you happy, it's probably not that bad of a thing to do. If you really like blogging, you may actually be able to monetize a blog if you can write about something that some people somewhere find useful. It's worth exploring.

2-They want to improve how their website ranks on search engines.
So here we are-back to the business side of blogging. Blogging can improve search engine rankings, if the correct strategy is implemented.

Starting a new blog on a new domain and then linking it to your website may be a very inefficient use of your time. The links won't be all that strong, and it will take a lot of time for your blog to be worth much in the eyes of the search engines.

Blogging on your site can be a great way to continuously add content to your site and build internal links. For many businesses, in the short and long run this is a better place to blog.

The best results you will get from blogging in terms of how positive of an effect it will have on the search engine optimization of your website is to blog on a blog that has a high page rank, and is in your industry.

Their are two ways of getting to this level of blogging:

1) Optimize a blog that is related to your industry-this will take time and money.
2) Purchase a blog or access to a blog network in your industry that will immediately give you the ability to blog on a high page rank site and point follow links back to your website.

That's it for today. Again-call me anytime you have questions about any of this stuff and I will do my best to help you figure it all out-720-279-1876

SEO Strategies for 2010

2010-01-08T15:38:00.001-08:00

Strategy Number One:

Build a good website!

Good grief-I was looking at a Drupal implementation TODAY that did not come with the ability a have sitemap, or make a title tag even slightly different than the H1 tag!

I was looking at a Joomla implementation this week with URls longer than an NBA player’s left arm, and the code would make the brain of even a “Beautiful Mind” shut down.

So pretty please, with sugar on top, get the basics right:

Back-end on-page Optimization

Unique and relevant meta data.
Unique and relevant heading tags.
Only one H1 tag per page.
Internal links via keywords, pointing to those pages that actually have the keywords in them.
Clean, SEO-friendly URLs. (What do these look like? Another blog topic)
Fast loading pages.
Don’t forget about 301 re-directs-at least make certain mydomain.com is pointed to www.mydomain.com.
An xml sitemap.

Human facing front-end content:

Good content written for the average Joe. (I don’t practice what I preach; my websites and blogs can be too technical.)
Good quantity of content. Tell your story; provide good information-more and better than your competitors.
Update your content as much as needed. (How often do you need to update your content? Hmmm-I should blog about that)
Unique content on each page.

Did I forget something? Probably, but I can always come back here and add it later. If you have any positive input or questions, take some time to respond below. Good luck in 2010!

Here is a bit about my Internet Marketing Consulting company I wrote today. What do you think?

"Integrity Internet Consulting is a 4 year old Denver based business that employs some of the leading expert consultants in the ever changing world of Internet marketing, including Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC), Social Media Strategies, Website development & blog development. We also provide comprehensive business consulting and marketing strategy development and implementation. We provide these services to technology companies, law firms and various other businesses in Denver, across the US and internationally. We have grown over the last 4 years leaps and bounds via our reputation. We are well connected in the legal and technology industry. Please take the time to visit our website www.integrityinternetconsulting.com and one of our business partner’s websites that we do a significant amount of work for: www.demandmcg.com. We have an office in the Art District just south of downtown Denver at 910 N Santa Fe. We have a very talented group of employees and contractors we work with throughout the Denver and Boulder area."

Marketing Automation Podcast

2009-12-30T09:16:00.000-08:00

Marketing Automation Podcast

2009-12-30T08:57:00.000-08:00

I like this podcast on Marketing Automation by Podcast by Steve Wood, CTO of Eloqua,. Steve also addresses SEO & PPC. Let me know what you think...

http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/27134657

Internet Marketing Mistakes in 2009

2009-12-29T18:38:00.000-08:00

Biggest Internet Marketing Mistakes of 2009

2009-12-29T17:03:00.000-08:00

(My next post will about what I consider to be some of the best Internet marketing strategies for 2010)

These are the biggest Internet marketing mistakes I saw in 2009, usually due to the one making the decisions being unable or unwilling to get the help they should have gotten to develop a strategic Internet marketing plan. Even if they did get someone to help, chances are better than 50% that the help they were able to get was inadequate at best, at worst an Internet marketing scam artist.

Would love to get your feedback...

In categories, but in no particular order…

Just Do It...or don't!

Just doing “something”
Just doing “nothing” (at least if you do “something” and fail, you have the opportunity to learn from it)
Just putting "anyone" in charge of Internet marketing for your company
Putting "no one" in charge of Internet marketing for your company

Embracing “absolutes”:

Deciding SEO was the only way to go
Deciding SEO was dead
Deciding Pay Per Click marketing was dead
Deciding social media was the only way to go
Deciding that blogging for business was a waste of time
Deciding a blog was the major or “only” key to success
Deciding Internet marketing was a waste of time
Deciding they did not need a website
Deciding Social Media Marketing was a waste of time
Utilizing the wrong solution provider:
Trusting a big company because they are big
Letting Google manage a PPC program
Buying a search engine marketing program from a yellow pages company

Fire…Aim…Ready!!!
(Strategies implemented before goals were set and a strategy for reaching those goals was mapped out)
Implementing an Internet marketing strategy and then asking good questions
NOT analyzing the competitive landscape before or during the development of an Internet marketing strategy

Buying the wrong website
Signing up for a Google Adwords program without consulting an expert
Building a website and then asking the question “What do we want to do with our website”
Building a website and then asking the question “How are we going to get people to our website”
Implementing a social media marketing strategy
Spending too little
Spending too much

Opportunities Missed
(Due to perceived “cost”, laziness, busyness, or unwillingness to look at options)

Not implementing a social media strategy
Implementing a weak social media strategy
Not considering search engine optimization
Not considering pay per click marketing
Not building a website
Not utilizing marketing automation tools
Not utilizing Internet analytics or website analytics tools

Lack of Research

Asking the wrong questions
NOT contacting Dan Stratford, Peter Kent, or someone else who is as honest and straightforward as he and I are.

You can call Dan at 303-952-0844

SEO for Multiple Sites from the same business

2009-12-15T18:05:00.001-08:00

I received this question from an acquaintance of mine the other day regarding search engine optimization, so I will answer it here...

"I had a question I thought you might have a good answer. If a firm has 10 website for the same or similar practice areas does that dilute their Google results. I realize they are competing against themselves and the issue of duplicate content."

This is me, thinking out loud...

10 websites for the same firm?

If they are all competing for the same optimized keyword phrases or search traffic, then I believe these principles apply, but I am always looking for good feedback and solid opinions from others (not spam!).

In general, Google's objective seems to be to bring back the best results for the searcher. The most relevant results, and I suspect, anappropriate variety. Meaning that when Google can avoid it, they would much rather bring back 10 different websites in the top 10, than 10 results from the same website.

Therefore, my goal would be to make certain that the 10 websites could not be linked together by Google in any way.

This means not sharing links, not sharing closely related, IP addresses, not being a part of the same Google webmaster or analytics account, and anything else that would keep Google from discovering that they are from the same company.

Google might look at addresses, phone numbers, names on the account, and anything else that could make the sites seem too similar.

It is a lot of work that could pay off, depending on the market and the potential revenue that could be generated.

For a free consultation please feel free to call me any time at 720-985-7945 or visit my website with more information on search engine optimization.

Follow Me on Twitter, facebook, etc.

2009-12-06T09:46:00.000-08:00

Ever since the announcement I saw on Friday, it seems my online subscribers for Twitter have increased exponentially.

So go ahead, follow me. I dare you ;-)

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/danstratford
Personal Blog: www.istratford.com
Join me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/integrityinternetmarketing
Friend me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/istratford
Join me on Naymz: http://www.naymz.com/dan_stratford_2754970

More Twitters? Or Twitterers?

2009-12-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

More Twitters? Or Twitterers?
So it's been all over the Internet today-that social networking is "now" a bigger part of SEO?

Hmmm...
Social networking has probably been a big part of SEO for at least a few weeks or months, but now it's going to get crazy! Twitter and Facebook scams are going to be rampant for too long.

In the end, the legitimate ones be will be again left standing, but it will be at the cost of mistakes made by many, the credibility of many detroyed by the temporary majority of scam artist filled world. These are the "storm chasers" of the Internet marketing universe.

I will pray that you are able to avoid the hype, and call someone like me who will shoot you straight.

If not, well-hopefully you will get around to meeting one of us someday-and we won't even say "I told you so".

Demand Generation

2009-11-23T13:21:00.001-08:00

A glimpse into a demand generation brainstorming session at Market
Creation Group.

On Page vs. Off Page SEO

2009-11-10T13:35:00.001-08:00

I read on Hubspot today that the importance of on-page vs. off-page SEO is a 25% to 75% split.

That may be the case for very competitive search terms, but I do not believe that to be the case for less competitive or even the majority of local search terms.

Certainly lawyers, plastic surgeons, real estate and some competitive technology industries may have this experience, but beauty salons, massage therapists, and many other types of business need to spend more time and/or money on content than links.

You really need a competitive Internet marketing analysis to determine what your SEO strategy should be.

Contact me (Dan Stratford) at 720-985-7945 to schedule a free consultation.

Social Media, Social Networking, "versus" SEO?

2009-11-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

I have been hearing this a lot lately: "SEO is dead. Social Media / Networking is the way to go.

That's kind of like saying: "Gasoline powered automobiles are no longer a safe or convenient way to get from point "A" to point "B", you must have an electric scooter, or at least a hybrid." (If you truly agree with this, then you should probably go find a different blog now)

Not exactly, but "kind of."

Certainly if you are not looking at social networking as a way to market your business you might be missing some opportunities, but it does not mean that it is a better strategy for your business than SEO or PPC for that matter.

The truth is that you have to understand what your current online presence is if you have one at all, and then spend time figuring out what strategies may be right for your business needs and budget.

I am considered by some to be an "Internet marketing expert", although I do not ever pretend to know everything. After all the space changes every day so much that it is even more of a challenge to keep up with the Internet marketing world than many other spaces.

At any rate-I will often get a question like: "Do you think I should invest in SEO, PPC or social networking? How much should I spend on a website? How much should I spend on Internet marketing?"

Unless I have already spent time learning about their business, their goals and their competitive landscape, my answer is always-"It depends."

If someone says to you "always" do this, "never" do that, or you HAVE to sign up for this new Internet thing, without fully understanding you, your business, your budget, your goals, etc, then I would I would run away from them.

There are great opportunities for many businesses to drive leads, sales and meet other needs online and offline, but it takes an intelligent, strategic and educated approach. Any other approach is probably a waste of too much time and too much money.

In fact, a good "Internet Marketing Consultant" needs to be more of a "business consultant" to fully help you take advantage of your online marketing needs.

As the lead consultant for Integrity Internet Consulting, I can help you develop and/or implement the right Internet marketing strategy for you and your business. Call me anytime at 720-985-7945.

Questions to Ask Your Web Designer Regarding SEO

2009-10-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

I had a friend call me the other day to ask me what they should ask the web designers they are meeting with that day about search engine optimization. She wanted to make sure the site was built correctly from the start so that they would not have to redo a bunch of stuff when it went live to make it SEO friendly.
So I am going to answer her question here, so that we can share it with others:

Questions I would ask:

I would preface these questions to the potential web designer by saying that you have done some SEO research, and that it is important that the site is built to the current SEO standards so that you do not have to redo the back-end after the site is finished. Tell them that while you do not expect them to be SEO experts, you do not want to have to pay someone to have to redo the work they have done. In this scenario I am assuming that the web designer would not be writing the site content.

1-When building the website, do you do anything to make certain the website is up to the latest standards regarding search engine optimization?

Depending on their answer, I would also ask some or all of these follow up questions:

2-Do you properly format the URLs, for example: www.domainname.com/keyword-keyword-keyword?
3-Do you integrate a sitemap that updates when changes to the site are made?
4-Do you make certain the meta-data is unique to each page and related to the content on each page?
5-Do make sure the H1 & H2 tags are formatted correctly?
6-Do you set our site up with Google Analytics and submit the sitemap?
7-Do you have examples of sites you have built recently where you built them to search engine standards?

8-If the site includes a CMS, does it enable me to:

Add pages
Format URLs
Control Meta-data
Control H1 & H2 Tags
Add content
Format and create internal links

If these options are not available, then you may end up spending a lot more money on their solution than what they are quoting you to get it up to snuff from a search engine perspective.

Good luck!

Hope this helps!

You can always contact Dan Stratford at 720-985-7945 for help with this process or ask questions through this blog.

Massage Therapist in Lenexa, KS

2009-10-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

My sister opened her own massage therapy location in Lenexa, KS.

Visit her website at www.lenexamassage.com.

Lenexa Massage

Heather Wright

Is SEMPO important?

2009-10-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

I received this question through Linked In today, and I thought I would share my answer/opinion as an FYI for anyone else:

Question:
"LinkedIn
XXXXXX has sent you a message.
Date: 10/10/2009
Subject: Sempo Certfication
Hi Dan,

I'm the Internet Mgr at XXXXXXX in Seattle, quick question...do you feel the Sempo Certification is beneficial? And lastly, are they known as "the cert. to have"?

Thanks...XXXXX"

My answer:
"From what I gather they are known as the Cert to have, and it is beneficial. It is a good foundation for some things. I just do not know how much it cost because LexisNexis paid for it for their entire field sales staff and the team of 8 consultants I was a part of.

Also, like any certification, many people that have it have no clue, and many people that do not have it know a lot more than what's taught in the foundation class. If you read the tutorials and then take the test you will learn some things and have a good foundation upon which to continue to build your Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing knowledge."

Anyway-that's just my opinion.

Article on The Yellow Pages-Idearc

2009-10-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting blog on >Idearc.

I worked at HQ for Dex Media, and later RH Donnelly. I had some similar experiences.

I have a hard time trusting the Yellow Pages companies, but I do know a lot of good people that work for them. My books stayed on my front porch for months until my cleaning lady finally put them in my living room. Still trying to muster up the energy to move them to the recycle bin.

They have missed an opportunity to downsize and re-emerge as the leaders in online marketing, but they have and continue to be short sided, lazy and not very innovative.

Who suffers? The consumers and the small and medium sized business owners. Not to mention the legitimate Internet marketing firms that have to overcome trust issues the horrible experiences that businesses owners have had with the yellow pages industry and other sub-par programs.

They do have products and services that work, but transparency, integrity, loyalty and a true focus on the needs of their customers has been absent for years.

You are best off consulting a yellow pages consultant before spending a dime on the yellow pages.

Another MLM Online Marketing Company: Adzzoo

2009-09-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

An acquaintance of mine called me about a new MLM online marketing company called Adzzoo. They seem similar to a company called LocalAdLink.

I gave him my honest assessment of the company, and I will tell you what I told him:
There does not seem to be much "meat" to what they do.They talk about how there are billions of searches online, how there are so many people looking for a local business and how local businesses need to be online.
They are correct, of course, but they don't really have a superior way of getting their customers placed well on Google.

Whether or not AdzZoo is a viable idea the small and medium sized business owner is getting undeserved-again!

Who is to blame for this ongoing lack of quality Internet marketing strategies being implemented for the small business owner?

Many people, but here are few reasons why...

1-It is difficult to build a SEO service & PPC management company that is profitable and therefore worthwhile. Sure, there are other reasons to build a business, but at the end of the day we have to eat and take care of our kids.
Most legitimate SEO companies and PPC experts that are making an impact on the marketplace and are profitable start at over $2,000 for initial optimization and over $500/month for ongoing link building and content building-and that's a minimum with additional work required from a web developer and a content writer.
Most small and medium sized local businesses would take no more than about $2,000-$4,000 in total investment with me over a 6 month period for me to get them to the top of Google for their search terms. That is; if they already have a website that I can build upon and if they came to me. Honestly-I have a handful of customers that I spend 3-4 hours a month on their websites for them so that they will stay at the top of Google in the organic results on Google, Yahoo! and MSN.They are happy and they earn a great profit from their investment in me. (I should ask for more money!)
The problem is I have to spend a lot of time marketing and selling to these types of prospects in order to grow at a reasonable pace, which is going to cost me 2-3 times that in my time or in hiring, training and paying a quality salesperson.
Many of these small business owners will choke on spending 2-3 times that amount-even if it probably is worth it. In fact-even the $2-$4,000 it may take just for the first 6 months of optimization can feel steep for an SMB. That is why the $100-$600 a month programs offered by Dex Media, Verizon, Yellow Book, LocalAdLink and Adzzoo seem so attractive to them. However, in most cases a comprehensive SEM program with an honest expert is likely to generate many more leads and be well worth the extra investment it takes initially. In the long run it is much less expensive-especially when you factor in the opportunity costs.

2-It is difficult for the legitimate SEM expert to reach these small business owners.
Many of the small and medium sized business owners have been burned by really bad Internet marketing strategies. Not just by small companies but by experienced sales reps working for large corporations who did not know (and some did and do not care) how much they were overselling what they had to offer.

3-We sound like broken records. Every “Internet Marketing Consultant” has a great story (true or not) they have been trained by their company to tell prospects and customers. All of the stories sound the same: “Google this, Yahoo! That, MSN Bing! that, Twitter, Facebook blah, blah blah!”
Who do they believe?
The first guy, the last guy or the best story teller?

4-The large, MLM and VC funded companies do not have to make a profit right away, but they need something simple for their hundreds or thousands of salespeople to sell. So they end up selling sub-par, over priced and hyped up products or services that work in certain situations, but do not work for everyone. The large companies with an actual track record sell Internet marketing as an “add-on” product (like the yellow pages), the MLMs brainwash everyone and the VCs throw money at salespeople and train them to tell a compelling (true or not) story.

5-It takes a sophisticated salesperson or consultant to develop and sell the right Internet marketing program at the right time for the right business-especially when selling against the well trained "story tellers".
For example: This is how a sales cycle should go for selling SEO & PPC (or “SEM”)

Comprehensive needs analysis where the sales consultant discovers what exactly are the needs of the business and to uncover opportunities that the business owner did not know existed. They also need to understand how Internet marketing will fit with the businesses' other business development and marketing efforts.
Take the time to educate the decision makers.
Comprehensive keyword analysis.
A website analysis.
Comprehensive Competitive analysis.
Intelligent and strategic recommendation for:
The correctly scaled website.
The correctly scaled SEO strategy.
The correct PPC recommendation.
The correct tracking program.
Communicate to the implementation team the correct strategy, reporting and follow up.

Conversely; The well-trained salesperson for the large, MLM or VC funded company will just have a good story and a sub-par solution that they slam their customer into-they will not have the skill or patience to go through the process above.

6-How does the sophisticated salesperson or consultant spend their time? (besides blogging?)
Reaching out to the large customers who need to spend 5, 6 or 7 figures on their Internet Marketing strategies. This is the most efficient way for us to spend our time.

7-Who is going to look out for the little guy?
I am trying. There are a lot of others out there trying, but all of the above is getting in the way.

This is why most small businesses are sold the wrong Internet marketing solution at the wrong time for the wrong amount of money.

It’s a jungle out there.

If you need a guide call me, Dan Stratford (720-985-7945) or contact me by commenting here.
Good luck!

Does Traffic to Your Site Improve Your Rankings?

2009-09-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Improve Your Rankings by Improving Your Visitors' Experience

I have always said that getting traffic to your site does very little to improve your rankings-I heard something the other day that has me re-thinking that answer.

If Google's goal is to create the best user experience by bringing the best websites to the top, then it may consider the quantity of quality traffic that gets to your site.

For example, if you have a lot of good traffic to your site, Google may give you some credit for that towards your search engine optimization efforts.

What is good traffic?

Traffic from multiple IP addresses, traffic that does not bounce right off of your site and traffic that spends a lot of time on your site. Traffic that shows your site is valuable. Maybe even filling out a form. Maybe even another reason to have video on your site.

All the more reason to build a site that is interesting to the searcher, and do everything you can to get the right type of visitor to the site.

Probably not a reason to hire people to sit around surfing your site all day long.

Does Pay-Per-Click (PPC) traffic count? Well, if the people who find your site via paid search spend a good amount of time there, then maybe it could have a positive affect as well.

Remember, this is all relative to your competitor's sites, and if you aren't doing a lot of other stuff right this is probably not going to make much of a difference!

The Best Thing About Colorado

2009-05-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

I can bike up a mountain at 6am, and fly down it at 6:45!

B-E-A-Utiful!

Now to get on with my day-kids and birthday parties!

Localadlink Scam?

2009-05-29T12:09:00.000-07:00

First of all, I need to remind you that LocalAdLink is NOT a scam, but a lot of people search on that term, and the the best way I can reach those people is to put it in my title.

Let's answer the question: "Should you sign up for Local Ad Link?"

Short answer:
If you enjoy multi-level marketing or network marketing, you could probably make some money in the short run selling Local Ad Link advertising. Assuming you swallow the kool-aid.

Here is my detailed analysis:

Let's start off on a positive note:
What can Localadlink do for you?
If you enjoy multi-level marketing or network marketing, you could probably make some money in the short run selling Local Ad Link advertising. Assuming you swallow the kool-aid.

That and all that it implies is the only reason I can see to utilize Local Ad Link, or localadlink.com.

In the words of Bret and Germaine from Flight of The Conchords, "let's talk about the Issues":

1-Localadlink.com is considered by me to be a search directory similar to yellowpages.com, googlelocal.com and lawyers.com. If I own a local business, and I want people to find my business online, advertising on a directory CAN be a good way to get customers. However, if no one is going to the directory then I will not get much of a return on investment of time and money.

How do people find directories?
Many ways, but right now I can think of 3 primary ways people come upon and consider utilizing a directory:

1) They use the directory because it has great brand name recognition:
Lawyers.com, yellowpages.com, superpages.com, hotels.com, travelocity.com and many other directories like this are recognized so we go straight to these sites.

Localadlink is making some strides in this area, however, it is most likely from people who are selling or are being sold the program. If you seel it, you might use it or tell people to use it to find a business. If someone is trying to sell you the advertising you are going to check it out. Since their network of salespeople is growing every day the traffic to their site is probably growing everyday. Not much of their traffic is from people like you and me looking for a product or service.

Most of us use a search engine like Google, Yahoo! or MSN to find a local business. Google gets at least 60% of all of the search engine traffic-possibly 70%

How do you find local businesses?

2) They found the directory on another search engine or website:

One of the ways Localadlink gets traffic to its site is that it pays for placement on other sites. According to Spyfu.com Local Ad Link has spent as much as $1,400 a day on Google Adwords advertising, but they have decreased the amount they spend recently to very little.

Other directories like Lawyers.com are on CNN and in Google Local (for free)

Superpages, Business.com and Dexknows.com have also been known to get free links from Google Local.

Localadlink does not get free links from Google Local. They might someday, but they are late in this game.

3) The site appears as a search result at the top of a major search engine like Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

It has been my experience that when we search for a local business on a search engine we usually are looking for an answer, but sometimes the best answer is a directory. Therefore, if a directory is in the first 2 pages of Google search results then we might use it to find what we need.

So how well is Localadlink.com "optimized"? That is, for how many search terms does it appear on the 1st pages of Google?

According to SEMRush.com, it is only on the first 2 pages of Google for these 17 terms which have any measurable search volume:

Keyword Position
adlink 11
client site 4
local business search 13
express 4 u 10
save auto sales 20
f&s landscaping 15
local business link 15
nutra metrics 1
how does web advertising work 16
georges tool rental doylestown 17
planet beach el paseo 15
508 944 9
sales how do they work 17
team collision center 10
zampieri s harbor grille 5
harbor grill destin florida 13
local advertiser 17

Contrast those results with these search directories:

yellowpages.com: on the 1st two pages of Google for over 400,000 Search Terms

Lawyers.com: on the 1st two pages of Google for over 150,000 Search Terms

The point is that for commonly searched terms Localadlink is not likely to have placement on Google or any other search engine.

Conclusion:

Local Ad Link might make you some money if you grow your downline or sell a lot of advertising, but if someone tried to sell me LocalAdLink to grow any other type of business I would have to say "no thank you".

How Could Local Ad Link become legitimate?

They could pay me to fix it :).

StoresOnline.com Seminar Watch Out!!!

2009-03-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

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.

Loopt Twitter Facebook

2009-03-15T06:53:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in following me, you can follow me on Loopt, Twitter, and Facebook.

I update Loopt from my iPhone and it updates all three of these sites.

Here are the links to follow me:

The easiest way to follow me: Follow me on Twitter by clicking here: Dan Stratford

Follow me on Loopt by clicking here in one of these places:

RSS Journal Feed: Dan Stratford

You can join Loopt here to follow me: Dan Stratford

Follow me on Facebook by inviting me to be a Facebook friend!

Internet Marketing and Your Domain Name

2009-03-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

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:

Track their Internet marketing results
Do the required keyword research to see where and how their efforts should be invested in search engine optimization or Pay-Per-Click marketing
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.

RTD Bus Schedule Denver

2009-02-21T23:46:00.000-08:00

Looking for the RTD Bus Schedule Denver or the Las Vegas March Lounge Act Schedule? Visit this site to find out the answer to a lot of your Denver internet marketing questions.

Of course, you are going to have to reverse engineer everything or call me for help ;)

Localadlink-Still Not Buying It

2009-02-12T19:38:00.001-08:00

I received this response from Dennis Haverty regarding my question about the legitimacy of the new network marketing company Localadlink. If this is the best he can show me, it further illustrates how ill-informed he and other Localadlink representatives are.

In his comment on my blog (you can click on it to enlarge it, but I refuse to publish this and help him market his product) Dennis suggests that I can see the value of Localadlink by Googling "Greek food park il" and "honda costa mesa ca". I did this-and the customers are at the top of Google...

...the problem is that these two terms cost only a nickel per click on Google Adwords (these are paid for results, the site has not had significant search engine optimization done to much success)-and they are hardly searched. A budget for these keywords would be about 50 cents per month on the high side-yet they charge about $200 a month or more for their advertising. Unless Dennis Haverty has more compelling evidence-I am still on the side of not really seeing the value in advertising on Localadlink.

Click on this picture below to see the

Internet Marketing in Denver

2009-02-12T09:57:00.000-08:00

How competitive is Internet marketing in Denver?

The answer is-"it depends", or, as Peter Kent likes to say; "How long is a string?"

If you are an attorney marketing to Denver consumers on the Internet it is going to be really expensive, right?

Not necessarily. For example; it takes much less work to get your website to the top of Google via "organic" search results (sometimes referred to as "natural" or "optimized" results) for the search term "Denver trademark attorney" than it does for the search term "Denver auto accident attorney". However, the thousands of dollars a personal injury attorney in Denver spends on Denver Internet marketing will likely lead to a lot more clients than the hundreds a month a trademark attorney will spend.

There are also some great opportunities for salon Internet marketing on the Internet. I know of at least two Denver Beauty Salons that spend $500 or less every month and generate $5,000 to $10,000 a month in revenue from their program.

With the landscape contractor season coming up, there is a great opportunity for a local landscape contractor to cash in on a strategic Internet marketing program.

So how do you find out how competitive your market is, and determine what your time and/or search engine marketing investment shoul d be?

Visit the links below to find out:

Attorney marketing
Denver attorney marketing
Seattle attorney marketing
Salt Lake City attorney marketing
Search engine optimization
Search Engine Optimization for attorneys
Denver Internet marketing
Denver Salon marketing
Beauty Salon Marketing

Good luck-and come back for more advice on Internet marketing.

LocalAdLink or "Local Ad Link"

2008-12-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

Has anybody been approached by the network marketing program localadlink(.com)? (I am putting the ".com" in () because I do not want to risk accidentally promoting them at this point.

I have watched their videos and read a bit on their website-from what I have seen it looks like a lot of fluff, without a lot of substance from the perspective of being a good advertising platform. It looks to me like what they are doing is trying to sell people on joining their network for about $300 with the promise of potential results and commissions from signing other people up.

The geo-targeting technology is not that unique from what I can tell, and actually not that reliable in the way they are trying to utilize it. For instance; I am on my VPN so it is completely useless to me as a search engine because it thinks I am in Dayton, OH.

I do not want to bash anyone's company or idea, but before I recommend this or not to friends, customers and prospects I want to learn as much about it as I can. If you have hard evidence that shows any positives or negatives of this company please let me know.

If you go to Semrush.com and plugin localadlink.com you will see that they have no high organic rankings for any significantly searched keyword phrases. Not that they are only trying to grow their company via SEO, but the likelihood of someone using them over Google, Google Maps, Google Local or a local online Yellow Pages seems very slim.

For REAL Internet marketing for attorneys visit www.lawyermarketingexpert.com.

For solid and honest answers to internet marketing for all other types of businesses visit www.integrityroi.com

How do you become the leader in your industry on the Internet?

2008-10-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

Think about Search Engine Optimization this way: no matter how good your business is, if you are not getting yourself out on the Internet letting everyone know what you are doing, what your expertise is, how experienced you are, what your products or services are and what makes you the right choice for your prospects- on a regular basis, no one searching online for your products or services will be able to find you.

Many business owners want to get to the point where they are driven by referrals. They want the phone to ring with the best prospects calling from referrals, or at least have the choice of operating this way once they have grown to the level they are comfortable with. Even referral based businesses must have a strong Internet presence, because their referrals “Google” them by name. As long as your site represents you well and is decently designed you should come up at the top of Google by name. Referral based businesses need to remember that more people will see their website than see their see them or their businesses, so they need to try to keep their website up to date and at a level that does not increase the risk of you losing referrals.

I spoke to a business owner who had a customer a few blocks a way that he never met face to face until after a year of doing business with them to the tune of $120,000.

I was at a business a few months ago that said every time the phone rang from a referral that said “I was looking at your website…” they cringed because as good as they were their website looked very “20th century”. They did not want to invest in search engine optimization for advertising purposes, but they needed to be represented online at least as well as they were at their office location and through the words of others who were referring them customers. A business like this can get a fully customized website with RSS feeds, and add flash and video for a total cost of between $3K and $6K-with no need for significant time or money spent on Search Engine Marketing.

If you are like the rest of us and you are not already famous and you need more quality customers, then you need to treat the Internet like another community that you are reaching out to and getting to know so they can get to know you. You need to “take Google out to lunch” and discover what they want from you for you to be considered an authority in your field and recommend you to the people who come to their site looking for a business like yours.

You need to get up to date information about you and your firm online regularly. Taking your referral partners out to lunch once every two years is not going to work as well as taking them out once a month or once a week.

How do you do that? The short answer is through blogs, press releases, forum postings, videos, emails and of course your website or websites.

If networking is not your strong suit, you might consider developing that skill or hiring a PR or sales/marketing specialist to do it for you. If you are not capable of implementing the strategies required to earn Google’s respect and have them begin to refer you business, and you do not want to spend your time learning how to be a website developer and optimization specialist, then you need to hire someone you can trust to do it for you.

How do you find someone to do it for you?

Check out my previous post on choosing someone to do your Internet marketing.

Of course, if you really wanted to be thorough, you could take the time to put together a comprehensive RFP (request for proposal) and ask 2-3 reputable SEO service providers to look at it, put together a proposal and present it to you.

The problem is that you are not likely to be an Internet marketing expert (if you are, that’s still only half the battle). You may not know what is available or what you should even look for in an Internet marketing specialist.

Blogging for links...

2008-06-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

I am obviously a believer of blogs and the value of blogs to the readers and writers of them, but they are not THE answer for getting links to your site and winning the battle for search engine optimization.

While a blog can be a good way to generate traffic to your website, it is better utilized as a means for you to engage with your potential prospects and current customers with current advice on topics they may be interested in about your business or industry.

In fact, one of the great things about blogs is that the search engines love them, and you can easily update them to reflect news events like the democratic national convention coming to Denver.

Of course, this blog is competing against a host of other blogs and press release organizations, and I would be surprised if just by posting to this blog I could appear at the top of Google for the search: denver internet marketing.

Some of you may have heard that blogging will bring your website to the top of Google or Yahoo!, and that you just need to “blog, blog and blog more”-link to your site and watch it rise to the top.
This may work in less competitive markets for less competitive keywords (like “rodent racing”, as Peter Kent always says), but it is not sufficient for competitive terms like attorney internet marketing. The fact is that you must generate tens, hundreds or even thousands of links to your site if you are going to win the battle to get to the top of Yahoo! or Google for competitive search terms.

One quality link from your blog will not do the trick.

The moral of the story is; keep on blogging if you want to, but don’t expect miracle placement for your website as a result. There are other things you can do that will generate higher rankings on Google and Yahoo! that are much more efficient.

What can you do to get your site to the top of Google?

Getting an honest answer to it can be very tricky.

Until now.

You can ask me through the form on this blog, wait until my next post, or call me at 720-985-7945 to schedule a free Internet marketing consultation for your business or firm.

In the meantime-have fun blogging!

Local Internet Marketing and the Yellow Pages

2008-02-19T07:49:00.000-08:00

How good of a resource is my local Yellow Pages?

Most of the available evidence, statistical, anecdotal and otherwise points to one thing: the return on investment for yellow pages advertising is decreasing. Even if overall Yellow Pages usage is staying the same (despite population growth), there are so many new books that your advertising in the YP is becoming diluted unless you advertise in all of the books-which probably will cost you significantly more. In 2007, more and more businesses that I work with either cut out their Yellow Pages completely, or are planning on doing so the next time the YP salesman comes around. In most cases this is because their Internet Marketing program is outperforming their Yellow Pages.

There are at least two ways in which Internet Marketing outperforms the Yellow Pages:
1-Internet marketing, if done strategically usually has a lower cost per customer acquisition and/or return on investment. Bottom Line: A well implemente Pay Per Click marketing program, Search Engine Optimization program, or other Internet marketing program has a better ROI than the yellow pages.

(I know that many of the Internet marketing programs out there are NOT working very well-which is why you need to call Dan Stratford for a free 15 minute consultation at 720-985-7945 if you are considering Internet marketing or looking to improve your program. In 15 minutes Dan can point you in the right direction.)

2-The quality of the customers is higher online. On average, the income and education of an Internet user is higher than that of a yellow pages user. Of course, all demographics use both to some degree, but on average the Internet is higher.

3-In most cases the Internet is outperforming the yellow pages advertising when a business is spending the same amount on both (provided their Internet marketing is legit)

If you spend the amount of money it takes to dominate the Yellow pages (which, for an attorney in a metro area the size of Denver can easily be over $150K/year) this can result in a higher quantity of calls than what you might get from Internet marketing. However, you will have to do a lot of sifting to get to the diamonds in the ruff. So if you have the time or resources to advertise aggressively in the phone book and you are aggressively growing your business, then the yellow page might be at least a break even proposition in the short run. However, my Internet marketing customers consistently increase their Internet marketing budgets and many are cutting out their yellow pages advertising completely.

Come back tomorrow for advice on Internet marketing with the yellow pages-what works what to look out for.

Local Search Engine Marketing

2008-02-18T07:08:00.000-08:00

I hear one of three stories when talking to someone about their experience with local search engine marketing, search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing-when they are being honest with me:

1-"We tried that before from this guy who promised us the world, but it never worked, and that guy is out of business."

2-"We have someone doing that for us, butwe aren't sure how it's working for us."

3-"We have that taken care of, and we are getting great results from our ______ program."

Of course, it's no wonder that the majority of businesses are doing very little to strategically and successfully market their business online in such a way that matches their needs, while providing a solid return on investment (ROI)

What are your best options for local search engine marketing?

First thing you need to ask-is selling your product or service online going to be profitable?

If you are selling a product that is a commodity and that people think they can get anywhere-like a 250 gig hard drive, you are going to have a hard time selling it online successfully, unless you have some kind of unique differentiator, because you are competing against hundreds if not thousands of companies selling the same thing on the Internet. There is a gentleman named Chip Roepke who owns a computer store by Park Meadows Mall south of Denver who offers superior service for local businesses and good prices, but my experience is that he cannot compete online against Gateway, Dell, Best Buy, etc. on price alone. I still have friends who buy from Chip because they know him and trust him, they know they will get a good deal, and his service is impeccable. His advantage is great local service, but he is not the price leader.

If you have a service that someone wants and needs to use locally like a landscaping contractor, a massage therapist, or a beauty salon, you can likely and easily profit very well from local Internet marketing.

That doesn't hold true for local insurance brokers, real estate agents, and attorneys. They CAN profit from local search engine marketing strategies, but not without a strong solutions provider, the right strategy, or a lot of luck. You can find a strong solutions provider, you can implement the right strategy, but you cannot depend on luck.

If you are unsure of what will work for you, call me-Dan Stratford at 720-985-7945 for a FREE 15 minute Internet Marketing Consultation. I will give you honest answers to your questions and within 15 minutes help you pick a direction to go that will help you succeed. If you get my voicemail, just leave a message and I will call you back.

You can also come back tomorrow for some FREE online advice, and answers to the question:

Where should I invest my time and money in Internet marketing?

"Transparent SEO"

2008-01-31T20:51:00.000-08:00

I am excited about this new term I heard from the SEO team at LexisNexis; "Transparent SEO". It's an SEO service where the SEO experts (in this case, LexisNexis/Martindale Hubbell's SEO service for attorneys) don't make empty promises to their customer's for position on Google, however, they give their customers an idea of the amount of time that will be spent on the program as well as an overview of the strategies the SEO consultant will be implementing. This allows the customer to hold the SEO firm accountable and essentially get what they are paying for: SEO knowledge, SEO strategic development, SEO implementation and consistent SEO management.

A new SEO firm in Denver that does NOT do work for attorneys but for other types of industries including real estate, appraisal firms, beauty salons, other service and other retail based businesses in Colorado and around the country is Integrity Internet Consulting. You can get to their site at http://www.integrityinternetconsulting.com/ or http://www.integrityroi.com/.

The Top Pay Per Click Marketing Mistakes

2008-01-21T13:39:00.000-08:00

Too Many Keywords Per Pay Per Click Marketing Ad Group
It's important to target your Pay Per Click Marketing keywords to be as relevant as possible. Don't group all your keywords into one or two ad groups-splitting them up will give you more control over ad variables so that you can be as relevant as possible.

Tracking the Results of Your Pay Per Click Marketing Program
Too many businesses throw money away on Pay Per Click Marketing without even tracking the results. We can show you how to track which keywords result in sales, leads or actions taken, and how to improve the profitability of your program.

Not Separating Your Pay Per Click Marketing Content and Search Marketing
This may be the biggest mistake of all. Content search results are not nearly as valuable as search results. If you do not know the difference, then you need to call us for a free 15 minute consultation at 303-997-3424.

Utilizing Geo Targeting in Your Pay Per Click Marketing Locao or Regional Program
We have customers that are able to profit from keywords they would never be able to profit from in a Search Engine Optimization program. Yet for many businesses geotargeting can be a wasted investment. You really need to talk to our expert to find out which applies to your business: call 303-997-3424 for a FREE 15 minute consultation.

Not Considering a Search Engine Optimization Strategy
Of course, many businesses need to implement a Pay Per Click marketing program alongside a Search Engine Optimization program (otherwise known as SEO).

Visit the links below for more help:

Pay Per Click Marketing
Pay Per Click Marketing Denver
Pay Per Click Marketing Las Vegas
Pay Per Click Marketing Kansas City
Pay Per Click Marketing Hawaii

"Transparent" SEO

2008-01-18T15:34:00.001-08:00

How many have you heard an SEO service company pitch that goes like this:

"Pay us X thousands of dollars and see what happens."

or

"Sign a long term contract with us for x thousands of dollars and see what happens."

There are two companies I know of that are breaking the mold when it comes to transparency and SEO.

LexisNexis/Martindale Hubbell is actually offering an SEO service for attorneys that is as transparent as it can be. They provide the attorney with an estimate of the hours it will take to provide a successful SEO campaign based on the competitive landscape of the keywords. The attorney receives reports every month with reports services provided so that the attorney can hold them accountable. No one else that I know is providing that transparent of a service for attorneys.

For non-attorneys there is a newly formed SEO company that does the same thing. The company is based out of Denver, and they are called Integrity Internet Consulting.

"Transparent" SEO

2008-01-18T15:34:00.000-08:00

Press Releases

2007-11-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

Press releases are an excellent way to market your business, and gain links back to your site. here is an example of a recent press release we developed and submitted to multiple sources. Note the links and the keywords that are appropriately linked...

Time travel back to 1988: An exciting new activity kit is sweeping into specialty toy stores and catalogs – Illustory gives kids the opportunity to publish their own original book. Today, the internet has totally changed the way we search for that perfect gift. Illustory has withstood the tides of change and continues to prove itself as a favorite gift for creative kids.They discover just how much fun writing and illustrating a story can be. And when their very own hard-cover book arrives in the mail, kids experience a sense of pride that reinforces their love of books and reading.

As the inventor, Craig Ebel of Colorado is now making Illustory available on a new website: http://www.creatively-ever-after.com/. Buy Illustory at a price of $19.95, with free shipping and find information about how the product got its start.

“I was truly inspired when I saw the unbridled imagination captured in a simple storybook that my daughter had created in her first-grade class,” Ebel recalls.

Ebel added professional typesetting and a hard-back binding to transform the story into his first prototype. A kit was then assembled that included all the materials a child-author needs to create a story and illustrations. A postage-paid envelope was included so that no other costs are required to have a book published and delivered. Once introduced into the toy market, Illustory took flight as if under its own power.

What is it about the Illustory book that you think makes it so popular?
Illustory is such a unique product. The process of writing a storybook provides kids with the freedom to unleash their creativity. And when they receive their own finished Illustory book in the mail, their efforts are rewarded in the form of a permanent book they can be proud of.
What makes an "Illustory book" so unique?We treasure books because they capture an individual's personal expression. Each finished Illustory book is a treasure not only because it is a professionally-bound and typeset book, but also because it preserves the child-author's innocence and unbridled imagination.

What makes Illustory educational?
When a parent buys educational toys for their child, the best ones are toys that also hold the child's interest. Illustory is a fun project that exercises the creative soul while utilizing writing and drawing skills.

What is included with the "Illustory create your own book" package?Everything is included with each Illustory create your own book kit including markers and forms for the story and a postage-paid envelope to send in the manuscript. Even the return postage for the finished Illustory book is included. Just add creativity.

What makes Illustory a good "arts and crafts" gift?Arts and crafts is another way to describe a creative activity. Illustory is the ultimate arts and crafts kit because a child's creativity is rewarded with a beautiful hard-bound book. The experience results in a sense of pride that reinforces the child's love of books and reading for the rest of their lives.

Local Search Grows 43%

2006-10-29T19:27:00.000-08:00

This is an article that affirms on what we have known for some time-the fastest growing search on the Internet if for local products and services.

Press Release

Local Search Continues to Gain Momentum, According to comScore

Google and Yahoo! Sites Lead in Local Search Market Share in the U.S.

Reston, VA, September 28, 2006 – comScore Networks, a leader in measuring the digital age, today released the results of an analysis revealing the size and growth of the U.S. local search market. Local search is defined as searches conducted by consumers on the local or directory (Yellow Pages) sections of leading search sites, and other searches identified as having local intent.

According to the study, 63 percent of U.S. Internet users (or approximately 109 million people) performed a local search online in July, a 43-percent increase versus July of 2005. Google Sites (30 percent) and Yahoo! Sites (29 percent) garnered the largest share of local searches in July. Microsoft Sites captured 12 percent of local searches, followed by the Time Warner Network with 7 percent.

Share of Local Searches by Site
July 2006
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch

Total Local Searches
Total Internet Population
100%
Google Sites
29.8%
Yahoo! Sites
29.2%
Microsoft Sites
12.3%
Time Warner Network
7.1%
Verizon Communications
6.6%
YellowPages.com
3.9%
Ask Network
2.7%
Local.com
1.9%
InfoSpace Network
1.9%
DexOnline.com
1.4%
All Other
3.2%

Based on a recent comScore Search Satisfaction study, 41 percent of those conducting a local search were searching for something in their home area, as opposed to searching for information on businesses in locales that they intended to visit. Additionally, among those searching in their home area, 59 percent indicated they were searching for a restaurant or something entertainment-related, such as a theater, theme park or an attraction for sightseeing. Another 52 percent said they were searching specifically for a business phone number or address. Two out of five local searchers (41 percent) were looking for information on a local service in their home area, including car rental office, dry cleaner or lawyer.

The comScore study also found that performing a local search drives consumers to take action. During the second quarter of 2006, 47 percent of local searchers visited a local merchant as a result of their search behavior, while 41 percent made contact offline. More than one-third (37 percent) made contact online as a result of conducting a local area search.

“Local search is experiencing strong growth as more consumers adapt to the ‘always on’ nature of their broadband connection, which enables them to quickly find information on local businesses,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “With approximately 849 million local searches conducted by Americans in July, local advertisers have a sizable market that can be reached through leading search sites.”

Today, at 9:00 a.m. MT, Steve Dennen, director of product management at comScore, will review additional findings regarding the local search market at the Search Engine Strategies Local conference in Denver, Colorado.

About comScore NetworkscomScore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/.

Contact:Michael RubinAnalystcomScore Networks(312) 775-6538press@comscore.com

Who should you have help you market your business online?

2006-09-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

In our last post, we discussed having a Google or Yahoo! Representative help you market your business online. Here we are going to discuss your other options:

A marketing firm/graphic designer
A website developer.
An SEO firm.
An Internet marketing firm
A full service marketing firm

A Marketing Firm/Graphic Designer

My experience with these types of firms is that they can be great for one-stop-shopping. They can manage your business's complete marketing needs so that you can have a comprehensive program that works with a lot of synergy.

In many cases they are your outsourced "Creative Marketing Project Managers."

This is very important, because when your whole marketing program is designed to work together it can be much more affective than the sum of the parts.

The only downside to utilizing this kind of service is that they will probably outsource anything to do with the Internet, and you will be relying on their discretion when it comes to picking a web designer or an Internet marketing firm.

They are often provided with referral commissions from the advertising they sell, and may be biased towards using media providers that pay higher commissions. I have seen some Marketing firms cut out their clients profitable advertising programs because they could not get paid commissions from that media provider.

A Website Developer

MOST good web designers and web developers build great websites. Few of them are SEO experts and fewer still are Pay-Per-Click marketing experts. If they try to steer you away from Search Engine Marketing, you probably should steer away from them, or hiring an Internet Marketing company to work with them.

An SEO Firm

There are some superb SEO firms out there-and there are also some scam artists. Next week I will be publishing an article on what to watch out for when it comes to SEO firms. If you need help before then, please feel free to call me and I will help you avoid getting ripped off (720-985-7945).

An Internet Marketing Firm

A high quality and trustworthy Internet Marketing firm will help you build a website that meets your specific needs and budget, and recommend a marketing plan that will help you grow your business. They will show you how to get the most for your marketing dollar utilizing the Internet, and also help you integrate it with your other marketing efforts. They will also help you avoid Internet scams.

The most important thing is to shop around and ask for at least 3 references that you can talk to.

If you are going to trust anyone with your money-more specifically the potential success of your business, you need to check their references.

I was shocked when a friend of mine from church asked me for references before she would sign up for my services. I provided her with 3; she called them and is now a very happy customer.

Most people simply trust me, but I often think they are lucky that I am actually a trustworthy Internet Marketing consultant. So many people are so confused or naive about the Internet they want and need to trust someone, and often times it's simply the first convincing person that comes along.

A Full Service Marketing Firm

When you find one of these that does everything in-house, including Internet Marketing, please let me know.

I would like to know who and where they are.

Should you use a Google or Yahoo! Representative to setup your Pay-Per-Click campaign?

2006-08-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

Should you use a Google or Yahoo! Representative to setup your Pay-Per-Click campaign?

Nobody knows more about PPC programs than the developers of the programs, right?

This is probably true.

It is also true that Google & Yahoo! Want you to profit from advertising on their sites.

However, you should be careful not ignore the fact that the telephone consultants you will be dealing with are still subjective, and the consultant you are dealing with is probably not a very experienced marketing consultant.

Much like the Yellow Pages companies, while they want you to profit from their advertising media-they want as much money from you that they can get in the process.

I was once criticized by an “SEM consultant” for implementing tactics that reduced the number of PAID clicks to their site, while increasing the QUALITY of the clicks. (By the way-said consultant did NOT work for Google or Yahoo!)

For instance, the DEFAULT for Google and Yahoo! is that you pay the same for a “content” driven click as you do for a “search” driven click. Most experienced PPC advertisers will tell you that “content” driven clicks are worth a lot less than search driven clicks. Your campaigns almost always should be setup with a content program in which the bids are 1/5th to 1/10th the price of your search bids, since conversion rates are typically 1/5th to 1/10th as effective (or less).

Having said all of that, if you cannot find a local consultant that you trust to help you set up a Pay-Per-Click program efficiently, then going directly to Google or Yahoo! might be your best option. Trusting a telemarketer from some company you have never heard of is probably more risky. You can contact us for advice on how to find a trustworthy consultant-or check back in the next few days when we cover Internet Marketing Consultants.

Google has been charging their customers $300 to set them on their network-the good news is that your $300 will go towards your advertising campaign. The bad news may be that they will not help you unless your budget is at least $900 a month and most LOCAL businesses cannot spend this much on a campaign.

Yahoo! charges about $150 to help you get setup on their network, which should include a $50 advertising credit, and about $80 to help you get set up on Yahoo! local with a $20 credit.

Should you trust your Yellow Pages Company to help you successfully market your business online?

2006-07-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

Should you trust your Yellow Pages Company to help you successfully market your business online?

Utilizing your Yellow Pages representative as your Internet Marketing consultant: This can be rather risky, but first, here are the positives of using this source:

If you are dealing with the major Yellow Pages Company in your region they may have a good program for advertising on their Internet Yellow Pages. The official “Phone Company” Yellow Pages usually has excellent usage, and provides a good return on investment. Verizon typically has decent usage outside of their region because of their wireless brand that is known everywhere.
You may have a good relationship with your rep if you have had the same rep for years. You probably trust them and they probably want to do what’s best for your business.

Here is what to watch out for:

Yellow Pages reps are under a lot of pressure to sell you as much advertising as they can-whether or not it is good for your business. This may result in them overselling their Internet Yellow Pages, and it will keep them from letting you move money from print to Internet-even if that is the best thing for your business.
Yellow Pages advertising does have merit, and many businesses profit from Yellow Pages advertising, but usage is declining and the return on investment is not as good as it used to be-certainly not as good as a quality Internet Marketing Strategy.
While the rep may have your best interests in mind, the experienced Yellow Pages rep rarely understands what the best Search Engine Marketing solution should be for your business. If they did, they probably would not sell you the Search Engine Marketing products their company offers. Utilize them for their online Yellow Pages, but you are probably better off utilizing an Internet Marketing Company to help you succeed with the search engines like Google, Yahoo! & MSN.
If they are NOT from the official phone company phone book then their Internet Yellow Pages is probably close to worthless. The exception may be Verizon.
Be careful of any Search Engine Marketing program they try to sell you. The Yellow Pages companies are usually not completely “transparent” with where your clicks are coming from, and they may charge you as much as a 2,000% mark up (yes-TWO THOUSAND) on your Pay-Per-Click program to manage it for you. This can eliminate the potential return on investment that a program like this SHOULD be providing your business.
Some of their Website development programs can seem like a good deal, but because they are usually reselling someone else’s service the monthly fees can be significantly overpriced. Their websites are usually packaged with marketing programs that are often over-priced. While often times a package deal sounds good, in this case it may be more costly than if you were to buy them separately.

Check back in the next few days for advice on dealing with these types of “Internet Marketing Consulting” options.

A Google or Yahoo! Representative.
A marketing firm.
A website developer.
An SEO firm.
An Internet marketing firm
A full service marketing firm

Do You Need an Internet Marketing Consultant?

2006-07-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

Should you utilize an “Internet Marketing Consultant”, or should you do it all yourself?

First of all, ask yourself what level you have achieved with your Internet marketing strategies up to now…

Whether you have just started a business or you have been in business for years, you probably fall into one of these categories when it comes to Internet marketing:

Level 1 Internet Marketer:
You do not have a website; however there is a good chance that you have some kind of Internet presence that you may be unaware of through your local Yellow Pages or some other source.

Level 2 Internet Marketer:
You do not have a website, but you have an intentional Internet presence through different organizations like City Search, a local Yellow Pages Company, the Better Business Bureau or some other organization. You are probably getting decent results from your efforts.

Level 3 Internet Marketer:
You have a website, but have no intentional marketing presence where people can find you, other than what you may have as a Level 1 Internet Marketer. I would argue that you could be better off at Level 2.

Level 4 Internet Marketer:
You have a website, you have spent money on a marketing it, but nothing has worked so you have a bad feeling about Internet marketing. Again, you could be better off at Level 2, because at least then you would have an optimistic outlook on Internet Marketing.

Level 5 Internet Marketer:
You have a website, you have spent money on a marketing it, you are getting some results that you are happy with, but you could be getting a better return on your Internet Marketing investment if you were more strategic.

Level 6 Internet Marketer:
You have a website; you have done a perfect job of marketing it and have reached the full potential of the Internet with your brilliant Strategic Internet Marketing Plan that includes strategic email marketing and cross-marketing.

If you are at level 1-4, there is a good chance that you could benefit by utilizing an Internet marketing consultant. If you are at Level 5 and want to get to Level 6 or if you think you are at Level 6, it is probably worthwhile to at least sit own with a consultant and see if they can help you increase your return on investment. There is nothing wrong with a free consultation.

Who can you trust to be your “Strategic Internet Marketing Consultant”? If you click this link, you will see who we are partial to, but here are some other ideas:

-Your Yellow Pages representative.
-A Google or Yahoo! Representative.
-A website developer.
-An SEO firm.
-An Internet marketing firm.
-A full service marketing firm.

Come back in the next few days for the details on what each of these types of organizations can do for you and what they cannot do when it comes to helping you implement a successful Internet Marketing Strategy.

Some Optimization help for our friends:

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LORE Magazine

2006-07-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a high quality magazine about the Real Estate industry or Real Estate people, you can get a Free Subscription to this high end Real Estate Magazine.

To blog, or not to blog? Blogs for Businesses...

2006-07-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

So you are now reading a blog about a blog-how does that feel?

The fact that you are here means you must see some value in blogging, but how can it help you grow your business?

Most small to medium business owners have limited time, so any time they take needs to be geared towards helping them grow their business. That being the case, it is vital that all of your Marketing efforts, offline or online need to produce results.

Unlike search engine marketing and other forms of marketing, blogging may be more difficult to measure in terms of revenue generated, but that does not mean that a blog cannot help your bottom line.

First of all, the search engines like blogs. Blogs are updated regularly and they are easy to index, and can help you in optimizing your website by linking to your website from your blog.

What does this mean? The bottom line is that they can help you increase your chances of being found on search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

A blog can help you establish yourself as an expert in your industry. A blog is a place where people can read your comments and articles and comment on them in a non threatening manner any time of day from anywhere in the world. This can be very important for businesses that sell complex products o consultation services.

A blog is easy for you to update for one author or for many authors. Unlike a website, a blog can easily be updated by one or more people-even if they have very little internet aptitude. If you can send an email with an attached document, you can probably figure out how to blog. This enables companies like real trends to have multiple yet exclusive consultants contributing content to their blog.

How do I drive traffic to my blog?

Tell people about it. When people ask you questions in social settings or even business settings, certainly answer their questions, but if you have blog you can say “Our blog gives free advice and answers to questions like these and is updated on a regular basis. Please check it out at http://www.myblog.com/ and feel free to add your comments. "

Email a link to friends, family and customers. Hopefully you have an email list of your customers that you use for email marketing campaigns. If not, there are some excellent and inexpensive online marketing tools that can give you the appearance of a fortune 500 company. Many companies offer internet consulting services (and more free information) to help you pick out the best program for your business. Of course, they can also help you with your blog.
Get other blogs and websites to link to your blog. If your blog has value, many people will want to link to it, or at least trade links to help drive traffic their blogs as well.

How much does a blog cost?

The great news is that you can get a free blog from multiple sources. Please visit Ascend eMarketing for a list of free blogs or search for “free blogs” online.

Of course, some businesses prefer to setup up a blog in a similar way as to how they would setup a website. The main advantage to this approach is that you can utilize your own “URL”.

For example, the address for this free blog is http://www.semprofessionals.blogspot.com/ . If we wanted to set up a blog that was simply http://www.semprofessionalsblog.com/ we would have to get our own software and pay for hosting, which could cost $10 or more a month.

Paying for a blog has some advantages:

A blog may seem more credible to some people because the blog is its own entity. Of course, some people may identify with blogspot or Myspace, so that could work either way.

Having a truly unique domain name may give the blog more credibility with the search engines.

A paid for and customized blog may be more customizable.

The good news is that you can get some great results with a free blog, but you have other options.

That’s all for now. Looking forward to your comments.

Optimizing your website?

2006-07-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

So what should you do to optimize your website?

I will have a new article out by next week. In the meantime, this is a good place to start:

Search Engine Optimization

Introduction to semprofessionals.blogspot.com

2005-11-11T08:49:00.000-08:00

Welcome to SEM Professionals: The Truth About Internet Marketing. My mission here is to post advice that is as objective as possible about the best ways to market your business on the Internet.

Everyone out there has an opinion, but many of them are subjective due to the types of products they are trying to sell. Are they trying to sell SEO services-they will probably say that SEO is the best. Are they trying to sell PPC management services? They will probably say PPC is the best.

Stay tuned for more information-and please give me your feedback.