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SEO is about to Grow Up

05 2008 Tuesday

By Jennifer Osborne in Featured

Those who have been in the industry since the late 90’s have seen huge changes in SEO. The industry has really matured. But in the grand scheme of things, if you were to plot SEO on a product life cycle chart you would see that the industry is still in its’ infancy.

Except that we’re poised for some serious growth.

SEO - Introduction Stage - Starting about 1998
Companies who were around in the introduction stage often had to build product awareness and develop a market for SEO.

In the early ‘2000’s, many of our clients had just build their first websites. This was a significant investment for them and they thought that now that they have a website, the online sales would just flow in. Many didn’t realize that they had just invested serious coin into an over-priced business card. Because nobody could find them.

At this point, there was little consistency in the product. And as the algorithm got more complex, the SEO offering varied more. Some companies were offering to “submit to hundreds of search engines” (some still are) whilst others were offering usability, analytics and site architectural input in addition to on-page and off-page SEO.

SEO - Early Growth Stage - we’re still just at the beginning of it.
In the early growth stage, smart SEO companies are beginning to think about building their brand and to increase market share.

Demand is increasing as more customers understand the benefits of “getting found”. There is some competition at this stage but because the market is broadening so much, competition is limited and there is still a huge amount of camaraderie within the industry.

10 years into it, it’s easy to assume that our industry is more mature than it actually is.

We’ve only just begun.

Customer Implication
Demand has already started to increase but it is going to skyrocket. And it’s going to come from all types of business from very small customers to Enterprise type of businesses.

Up until recently, the neighborhood dry cleaner didn’t care if someone across the country found their website because they deal within a 5 km radius got very little benefit from optimizing their website. Now as search gets much better at localization, those local business will become much more serious about the opportunities online

It is also likely that we’ll see a lot of growth from Enterprise clients. These clients previously resisted SEO due to the complexity of working within legacy back-end systems. As technology increases and back-end systems become less expensive for more capability, we’re going to see companies replace their antiquated CMS’s with SEO friendly options.

Another change that this stage of the product life cycle will bring is in our relationship with the client. As SEO becomes a bigger part of the mainstream marketing mix, our customers will become more and more knowledgeable about SEO (we’re already starting to see this).

We’ll move from having a sales / consultative role to being a thought partner. Our clients will have a good understanding of what needs to be done but they’ll outsource it to us because we’re more efficient at implementing.

Competition Implication
With high growth in revenues, low barriers to entry, and no certification required, the SEO industry is prime for attracting any and all new entrants.

There have always been new competitors. But the face of our competition is going to change greatly. Up until now competition has focused primarily on small start ups and web design firms who decide to add a search component. Some stick around but many are wiped out with the next major shift in the algorithm.

This phase of the SEO life cycle is going to attract better capitalized, stronger competition from many sectors. These new entrants are attracted to SEO by the potential for profits not by the fit with their offering.

We are already starting to see traditional media firms seek to protect their eroding revenues by grabbing a slice of the online pie. But WalMart has shown us that future competition could be anyone. And it will be.

No all new entrants are attracted by dollar signs. There are also companies that are feeling increased pressure to offer a more well rounded package. As the integration of offline and online marketing services increases, customers are putting more pressure on agencies to handle the full scope of their marketing spend including the online component.

Although we’re already starting to see increased competition, many existing SEO companies aren’t feeling the pinch yet because demand is also increasing.

One implication of increased demand coupled with new entrants to the market is the impact on supply. We’re starting to experience a shortage of experienced SEO talent

SEO talent is a scarce resources. And this scared resource is not yet being renewed at a fast enough pace. Whilst some colleges are starting to offer digital media / internet marketing diploma, these grads know very little about what it takes to optimize a website.

Moreover, what they do know is limited to theory. It’s one thing to know that links are important to ranking. Its an entirely different thing to know how to effectively build links.

So what?

Who cares where we are in the product life cycle?

Although we’ve already experienced a lot of growth, this growth is nothing compared to what we’re about to experience.

In this next stage of the SEO life cycle, we’re going to see shifts in our clients, competition and product offering. Knowing that this is coming, will allow you to prepare.

If we know that face of our competition is going to change from other small to mid sized SEO’s to large Agencies and Enterprise size companies in totally unrelated industries then we can prepare for this by determining how we’re going to differentiate ourselves from the new entrants.

And if we know that there is going to be increased pressure on skilled resources then we should be developing in house training programs now.

The future is now. And it’s only just begun.

The Cycles of Organic Search Engine Positioning

05 2008 Tuesday

By Jeffrey Smith in Featured

Just like a plant, organic search engine positioning is based on cycles. While getting there may be half the battle, understanding the growth, gestation and the budding cycles of SEO as well as understanding temporal relapses in positioning (while data centers unify results a.k.a. the Google dance) for ranking stability is all part of organic search engine optimization.
Just like starting with a field full of potential, you have to plant the seeds to harvest the rewards. That reward is 100% all-natural organic search engine positioning, which is well worth the wait.It is a know fact that 8 out of 10 people (look left) on the screen when skimming search results and focus solely on organic / natural search results while the other 2 out of 10 people (look to the right) and scan or click sponsored pay per click results.

If you are relying on PPC as a marketing medium and spending more than $5K per month, then you may wish to consider implementing a cost-effective, long-term organic organic SEO management campaign. This can reduce your dependency on PPC and offset the rising costs of bidding on keywords based on search volume / supply and demand. Organic traffic is natural and is accomplished through building quality content to funnel relevant traffic to your site.

Without observation (market analysis), opportunities for optimal positioning could pass you by, without participation, the competition takes the lead. If you want increases in user engagement, increased traffic, higher page rank, a higher percentage of sales conversion, then first you’ll need more content to increase the probability that someone, somewhere will be drawn to it and find your pages useful.

But before you look beyond the horizon and obsess about results, having a clear understanding to guide your actions is needed. With a blueprint, you can scale results systematically or determine where you are in each stage of the process.

Observing time cycles for content, the rate in which it gains or loses positioning in the SERPs (search engine result pages) is important. Looking at this from the standpoint of (a) where you are and (b) where you want to be, it is all about developing continuity and developing the trust and exposure required to get there.

Organic Search Trajectory Cycles - determining how new keywords fit into the existing theme model of your existing content (just wanting to rank for keywords is not enough, you have to build the content).

Example, if you have a site about frogs and you wanted to rank for insects, you would have to create a logical bridge between the two categories to expand the focus of your site, without diluting or losing relevance for the terms you have developed already.

If done tactfully, and gradually over time while reinforcing certain aspects of your internal linking as well as adding links with authority form the new topic (from related sites), you can enter a market with enough momentum to out rank your competition in a fraction of the time.

The Cycles of Velocity - The idea behind velocity in content development and building links, content and topical relevance simultaneously is the key to stable rankings.

In the beginning it is harder to make the initial impression as you are dealing with the defensive factor of the other more established pages and their SEO efforts, so you have to really push the envelope to make an impression.

After mid phase (5 articles or blog posts tactfully integrated with enough related material to be considered a valid / relevant result by search engines) it’s still a struggle, but at least you can start seeing the fruits of your labor and hit the top 50 organic results in search engines.

Then, in the end-phase of the gestation process, closing in on your demographic and appearing for a number of related phrases as well as making a debut in the high vertical marketing channels (the top 20-30 results) a new tactic is required to polish the relevance score for your pages which can stem into multiple high ranking phrases.

Creating islands of content is one method that is effective for this strategy; this method relies on making each related segment just as strong as the one above it. So, instead of having flat architecture and having your root folder strong, all of your sub folders and other categories each have the capacity to rank well and elevate the entire site as a result. This requires internal and external links, diversity, topical modifiers and a tactful direction of how those links distribute their weight.

Holistic Nurturing through Consistency - Ensuring you make your rounds to schedule routine internal link audits or check to see how each segment of your site is evolving. The key here is to go back and track your progress as you break into the upper echelon of an industry.

SEO is a process of tilling the soil (keyword research), planting the seeds (content and links) and being patient enough to see the results rise through the surface and achieve relevance from consumers invoking the pages from the index with related search queries.

Search engine optimization, organic search in particular is all about managing multiple miniature campaigns holistically as part and parcel of a larger marketing strategy. It truly boils down to positioning and relevance.

If your positioning is strong in search engines, then you have the potential to be discovered on accident (much like an impulse purchase). You never know exactly which key phrase combinations a search engine query might latch onto, which is why it is important to write quality topical information.

So, appearing in the same genre of results at the right time, for someone seeking a related query is ideal. Through tactfully promoting your content purposely through organic SEO in this fashion, not only does your traffic, branding and exposure reach new heights, but you truly start to appreciate and understand the infrastructure of what drives an industry (through tracking and analytics) and how to hone your pitch to reach each audience with a unique message.

Linking Practices – Part 1 of 3: Links Defined

05 2008 Tuesday

By Robert Cerff in Featured

Here in part one of “Linking Practices” I will run through and explain in a little detail. While each method of linking has its benefits it also often has disadvantages. More often the advantages outweigh the disadvantages - if done correctly.

Reciprocal Links:
While many believe reciprocal links to be dead, these links have the potential to be either very useful or very useless; it all depends on the source for this one. A reciprocal link is a link swapped with another website. While the search engines don’t really give these all that much weight (unless from an authority site) these can be useful in driving traffic to your website from related websites. With enough of these links each driving small amounts of traffic to your website the increase in traffic can be quite noticeable.

A reciprocal link from an industry leader or a related industry leader can often lead to good volumes of traffic to your website. The greatest benefit here is that these are visitors that are already interested in your product or service. The disadvantage of running reciprocal links is that you get the world and his brother wanting to swap links with you, usually with absolutely no relevancy at all.

One Way Links:
These are the most valuable links when considering the search engines. A “direct “or “one way” link is a link to your website that is not reciprocated. The reason that this is so much more valuable is because in this case it a website that has linked back to yours without any solicitation (or at least that is how the search engines see it). The theory behind this and the PageRank algorithm is that every link to a website counts as a vote. Obviously the more votes you have the move important you site is seen to be. However it is also believed that every vote that you have to send out weakens your importance. Kind of like if you had a group of 10 people that all gave you $10, you would be up $100, but if you also had to give out $10 to each of them, then you simply break even. In the same way, the more votes that you are able to “bank” (not handed back) in this case the better off you are.

RSS Feeds and RSS Aggregators

05 2008 Monday

By admin in Featured

Reading RSS Feeds with an RSS Aggregator RSS or Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary is the latest information management tool that is gradually earning popularity among web users and website owners. With RSS technology, it is possible to get the latest postings from your favorite websites. But clicking on the RSS or XML button in a homepage is not enough to give you the service you need. An RSS feed or code displayed in the pop-up screen if not on the main page is composed of symbols and words that would only make sense to advanced RSS users and computer programmers and software enthusiasts. Another software tool called an RSS aggregator or reader is needed.

An aggregator works by scanning the worldwide web with latest postings based on the RSS code (containing the website’s URL) provided or added by the user. When it finds a new posting, news, or update, it will publish the RSS feed on your home page containing the title of the posting, which also serves as a clickable link to the website source. This RSS feed may or may not contain the whole article, a summary, and photos, depending on what RSS aggregator you are using.

Aggregators come in two types: the downloadable program or desktop-type and the online or web-based type. The desktop aggregator usually charges a certain amount for its services; this would include regular updating in the form of upgrades or patches to the original version. This type of RSS reader allows more customization of RSS feeds as well as page format or design over its on-line counterparts. But of course, price can be a drawback.

On-line or web-based aggregators are free of charge. All you need to do is register an account with them then you can start enjoying their services. Depending on the “brand” of the aggregator, customization is more limited. Some even do not allow you to customize at all.

Product and service advertisers are realizing the potential of RSS aggregators in internet marketing. In fact, several submit RSS codes to several popular web-based aggregators to reach the growing technophile and internet-based market. My Yahoo has been instrumental in popularizing RSS technology to both users and website owners and advertisers.

At present, there are many aggregators to choose from and newer versions of the same aggregator are constantly developed by its programmers.

Below are some of these desktop and online aggregators: Desktop Aggregators 1. AmphetaDesk Advantages: - free - supports Linux, Mac, and Windows - easy addition of RSS feeds

Disadvantages: - not maximized use of screen display - few options for customizing

2. FeedDemon Advantages: - user friendly - free trial version - contains prepared popular feeds - allows filtering of RSS feeds - configurable “watch list” to manage junk RSS feeds - search channel feature that incorporates other RSS services e.g. Feedster - allows feed storage for future use - tabbed browsers for channel navigation - built-in podcast receiver

Disadvantages: - supports only Internet Explorer (embedded) - paid software (`$29.95)

Online Aggregators 1. Bloglines Advantages: - all major browsers supported (e.g. Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, Firefox) - user-friendly especially for beginners - free, web-based aggregator - easy registration - no advertisements - contains its own directory of RSS feeds of thousands of websites - personal email account for subscribing to newsletter emails (optional) - allows privacy adjustments for personal blogs - allows saved searches - mobile version available - 10 languages supported - Additional add-on tools for automated blogrolls and subscription buttons

2. NewsGator Advantages: - free (consumer-standard version) - provides personalized news channel - allows translation of RSS articles into email format - synchronization of feeds in several devices possible - browse and search feed capabilities save time on surfing - allows keyword filtering - blog headlines - button-click automatic subscription to news feeds

Disadvantage: - Outlook-based thus limited to Windows

3. My Yahoo Advantages: - Free web-based aggregator - user-friendly - customizable home page design - button-click subscription to RSS feeds - built-in directory and search tool for feeds - wide variety of feeds e.g. news (science, technology, local), weather - connects to all Yahoo features and services

Disadvantage - banner advertisements

There are also lightweight RSS aggregator extensions which are actually plug-ins to existing internet browsers. An example of which is Sage aggregator.

Advantages: - free of charge - beginner-friendly - reeds both RSS and Atom feeds - allows feed discovery - can be assimilated to Firefox bookmark (storage and live) - allows OPML feed lists imports and exports - customizable style sheets - supports a wide range of locales e.g. Catalan, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Korean, Polish, Slovenian, etc. - easy installation

Disadvantages: - good for about 12 RSS feeds - limited use to Mozilla-Firefox and Mozilla-Firefox supported browsers

RSS developers promise better features in future versions of their aggregators. Microsoft is planning to include a built-in aggregator in their next Windows version. These developments are definitely something to look forward to by all internet aficionados.

Brad Ro - I make over $10,000 every 2 weeks. How? Click here to find out: http://www.itshelpful.com/brainlessbucks

Having trouble creating your own killer website? Try: http://www.itshelpful.com/adsensebig

Maximize Traffic With 10 SEO Power Tips

05 2008 Monday

By John Alexander in Featured

How do you know what type of content is really going to attract the right searchers? In this article I wanted to cover a few very basic tips that you can keep in mind when building high-performance strategies. Remember that good search engine marketing is not about trying to manipulate or “fool the search engines.” Good SEO skills are more about creating genuine relevancy for well-written content that deserves to be found because it is truly the most relevant and useful to your audience of readers.

What students quickly discover in the 5-Day classes is that the optimization skills are not nearly as hard as many people make them out to be (even for the most competitive phrases,) once you’ve been trained and understand the full scope of influences that are at work. The biggest advantage that we have had is all about the “accuracy of information.”

1. Write content that your audience is already looking for within the last 90 days.

True keyword research is not about â€œguessing at keywordsâ€ but its all about researching actual data. How are your SEO research skills using Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery? At the SEO Workshops we teach much more than the traditional “keyword research” methods. We help students learn “Keyword Forensics” and how to quickly tap into the hidden niche trends that 99% of most Webmasters never even notice.

2. Does your Web copy speak to the reader or does it speak about yourself?

Remember that your Web site should be focused on your audience first and appeal specifically to a niche interest. When writing your Web copy, you need to dialog in an appropriate tone and format for the right audience. Some of the most interesting content will have more appeal if it speaks to your audience in terms of “you.” You can, you might, you will, yours, your and youâ€^TMre INSTEAD of we, ours, weâ€^TMre, we will, we can, etc.

3. Focus on writing for the human audience first and search engines second.

While search engine optimization is important to your visibility, try writing your content first. Most people donâ€^TMt write their best when trying to optimize and create content at the same time. Focus on creating highly useful content that is extremely focused on one topic per page. Once you have completed your writing so that you are pleased with it, then go in to do a mild re-write for the search engines.

4. Tips for triggering idea generation and giving your strategies a unique twist.

While many people seem to spend time exploring their competitor’s Web sites, we encourage you to lead the way with new ideas. Try not to be obsessed with what the competition is doing, but be creative and start your own new trends. Spend just a little more time working on your projects this week than you did last week. Setting yourself apart from the competition is easier than you might think and gives you a huge advantage over others.

5. Creating your content so that it “speaks” to a specific audience of visitors.

Think of how your Web copy reads and ensure the dialog flows smoothly. Read your work out loud and see if you can improve the tone of your message With natural expression. Keep your specific audience in mind. How you write for senior citizen (in tone and in format) may differ considerably from writing for an audience of for example “new parents.” Always ask yourself “what is important to these readers?” Rely on researching accurate data to eliminate guess work.

6. Remember strong calls to action

Without a firm call to action, donâ€^TMt expect the reader to naturally guess at what you want them to do next. Plain ordinary dialog that asks the reader to take the next action will usually work best. Dialog that is written for voice (similar to the way a broadcaster writes to project their personality.)

7. Build your search engine optimization skills in the beginning with the “stress free” approach.

If you are new to SEO, you may want to focus on the long tailed niche phrases since most searchers are doing fairly descriptive and intelligent searches these days. Ideally You want to attract those who already know what they are looking for and just need to find your pages more easily. With practice and the right training you can go after highly competitive phrases too but youâ€^TMll find that the best conversions nearly always come from the niches. Also remember that it is the basic SEO skills that carry you through and must come before any of the advanced strategies. The result will be stable top rankings that stand the test of time with minimal fuss.

8. Give your readers a non-threatening reason to respond right now.

What is the objective for your page and does your Web copy work effectively at fulfilling that objective? It may not always be about trying to sell a product or a service. It should not be about fulfilling your needs first but it should be about meeting the needs of why that searcher first conducted a search. Meet their needs and deliver up something that satisfies their search first and then give the visitor a non-threatening reason why they might respond to you. Do you want their e-mail address? or do you just want them to pick up the phone and call? Never lose sight of the fact that the Web is a marvelous two way interactive experience, if you want it to be. Make your Web site a vehicle for relationship building and remember that many readers may actually have the desire to interact and participate through Blogs or other “User Generated activity.” Give your visitors something that involves their participation.

9. Remember that your readers always want to feel like they are in control of their Web experience.

People often use the Web for researching topics of interest or doing preliminary price comparisons or for looking up information. While most people explore the Web for their own purposes, the more that you put them in control of their experience the better. If appropriate, you may want to consider adding addition tools or functionality to your Web site in order to enhance its usability for your specific audience.

10. Did you know that if you write your content so that it naturally “reads very well.”

You will naturally gain some bonus for having created content of quality. By this, I mean content…that reads well to a human being. Don’t stuff keywords all over the place. Instead, use moderation in everything you do. One of the things you need to understand is that “theme based” search engines like Google, are actually using a measure of artificial intelligence (AI) to measure how well your article “reads” based on all of the overall context of your body text (other than the keywords) based on data that a search engine has gathered concerning a specific topic. This is great news for writers because if you are making a transition to writing for the web, you’ll find some search engines are literally rewarding pages that are “well written.”

John Alexander has taught live SEO Workshops since 2002 at http://www.SearchEngineWorkshops.com as well as Online Webinars at the SEO Workshop Resource Center at http://www.SEW-WRC.com

Unlocking The Secret Strategies Of Link Building

05 2008 Monday

By admin in Featured

The strategies I am going to reveal in this article are tailored for getting excellent search engine rankings in Google. The reason that I am solely going to concentrate on Google is because it is the largest search engine on the planet. In other words, most of the strategies I will reveal will also get faster rankings in other search engine such as Yahoo and MSN. But to be honest with you, Google is where to play and that’s where I will concentrate our linking efforts. Link Building Basics

You see, the search engine algorithms are always changing. But throughout all the search engine madness, there are some link building principles that have stood the test of time. That said, one of these axioms that has lasted is that it is the quality and quantity of back links to your site that determines your position in the search engines.

Google is smart enough to determine if a site has high quality links and delivering quality content relevant to the searched keyword. If a site has bad content, others will not want to link to them and Google will penalize them with a lower ranking. So, you see, in essence, the quality and quantity of links connecting to a site is one factor that determines the quality of the site and in turn, search engine ranking.

Another determinant in link building is the “anchor text” of a link. This is defined as the text in the link on a site. For example, if I have a site about ‘making money online’ and am trying to optimize for that keyword, I’ll try to get as many sites as possible to link to mine with ‘make money online’ as the anchor text. This tells the search engines that the site is indeed about ‘make money online’ and will give more weight to that link. Whereas if the anchor text is ‘teaching your parrot how to talk’ the search engine will not give that link much weight.

Google also gives more weight to a link that has anchor text relevant to the site. For example, the site that’s linking to me in the above example has to be about “make money online” if they are going to give extra weight to that link. It’s another way to determine that the user is finding what they are looking for and they’ll reward relevant links by giving you a higher ranking.

Do you hesitate to send email to your subscribers and customers?

05 2008 Friday

By Bjorn Brands in Featured

If you’re one of the people who worries that your customers will think you’re spamming if you send them email, no matter HOW useful the information is, I urge you to reconsider.

The truth is, when you do your email marketing right, not only is it an excellent source of income for you, but your subscribers and customers will actually appreciate hearing from you!

Here are three tried and tested ideas for successful email promotions:

Damaged or returned stock promotions - Offer damaged or returned stock for 50% off! Everyone gets returns, it’s a part of doing business. And of course damaged stock is unavoidable. Why not take advantage of email to clear out your stock that’s otherwise going to take up space, while at the same time offering your customers deals that they’re sure to appreciate?

Limited time offer - By offering a great discount on your products for a limited amount of time, people who receive the email feel like it’s urgent they respond, so there’s less chance they’ll close the email to “think about it” and never come back.

Limited quantity offer - Similar to the limited time offer, the people who receive this email will also feel a sense of urgency.

If you go with “limited time or quantity offer stick with the offer. If you write in your email that a product is available for a limited time, then stick to it.

Sometimes you see that a product is available till midnight, 14 days later it’s still available till midnight.

And those are just a few to get you started. Use your imagination, and I’m sure you’ll come up with all kinds of things to send your list that they’ll really ENJOY having. And if you find an email promotion that really works for you.

Do you panic at the thought of writing your own promotional email?

Here’s something you should know: writing an email is 95% rules, and only 5% creativity. So as long as you stick to the rules, you’ll write an email that’s suitable for sending to your customers every time!

Hypnotize the reader with compelling benefits - The most effective email promotions grab readers’ attention with compelling benefits that speak directly to the readers’ deepest desires and greatest fears. Benefits build the value you need to drive people to act when presented with your call to action.

Write your email like you were talking to a friend. Be informal, use contractions, and don’t be afraid to start a sentence with “and” or “but.”To transfer ownership, you want to make sure your reader can actually picture themselves using your product

Use automation to create personalized offers - Nothing is more appealing to people than the ’sound’ of their own names, and nothing grabs someone’s attention faster than something that affects them directly!

We don’t recommend you try to get yours subscriber to purchase directly from your email. Instead, you should ask them to “click here now to learn more,” or something similar.

How it LOOKS makes a big impact on readers, too. Here is how to format your email.

Width - Be sure to format your email message in a table that is not over 60/65 characters wide. If you exceed that, your message may be cut off on the right side of the screen — or at the very least, not print properly

Images - Try to avoid using graphics whenever possible. People with slow connections will have trouble downloading them, and people reading your message offline won’t see them at all.

Bolding - Use bolding just to emphasize the biggest and best benefits in the offer. You should be able to scan the message and instantly understand the biggest benefits

Bullets - Using bulleted points is one of the best ways to break up your copy and make some of your key points really stand out. As will all formatting techniques, make sure to don’t swamp your email with bullet points.

Finally, once you’ve written the letter, give it a final “scan test.” Set it aside for an hour, then return to it with fresh eyes BUT don’t read it word for word. Scan over the letter and see which sections jump out at you. Make sure that those sections contain the key benefits.

Stick to these few simple rules, and you’ll have no trouble turning out emails that get a response, because your customers actually WANT to receive them!

Bjorn Brands is a successful entrepreneur who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same. http://www.moneyacces.com

Focus On Quality Traffic Not Quantity

05 2008 Thursday

By Westly Lager in Featured

Now, going up the list in terms of quality, you will have PPC traffic generation (this isn’t really next long-term, but if you don’t know what you are doing, you can lose your shirt in a hurry with these, so be careful).

There is also ezine advertising, and article marketing, which, when done correctly, can be very profitable.

These are two forms of traffic generation that generally produce a much higher quality visitor than the ones mentioned earlier. Ezine advertising is more costly per visitor, and article marketing, although it can be done on a budget, is time consuming.

Now, everything is relative. You see, you will be spending more per visitor for these visitors, but when they come to your site they already have an interest in your type of product. They are a much more targeted visitor, and as such, are much more likely to purchase from you.

There is not much to say here about ezine advertising, except to try it out and experiment with various ads in various ezines. Again, it is important to track all your traffic and the source of your sales. You see, if you advertise in 10 ezines and receive 10 sales, it is very unlikely that each ezine produced one sale each. One ezine producing 8 sales, and another producing 2 sales, with the other 8 ezines producing nothing is probably much more realistic. For this reason, you must track, and it is also advisable to advertise in several at one time. For example, with the case just mentioned, if you had only advertised in some of the ones that didn’t produce, you would have a bad feeling for ezine advertising, and if you had gotten lucky and advertised in the one that produced the most sales, you would have become over-zealous regarding ezine advertising. But by purchasing several ads and tracking your results, you have a much more realistic picture of what ezine advertising can do.

Article marketing. This has recently become a very popular area of advertising, although it has probably always been effective.

What it entails is writing short, informative articles on the same topic as your book and including a link to your website at the end of the article. You then submit the articles to the various article submission directories. When they publish the articles, ezine directories pick up your article and use it as content for their ezine or newsletter. So, in a sense, it reaches the same market as the ezine advertising, but with a different cost. I say different, because although you are not paying for the article to appear, you also have no control over where it appears. The idea is that if you write a good article, the ezine editors will include it because they feel it is good information for their readers. It is also time consuming to write articles and submit them to the various article directories.

Now, just like everything on the web, there is an answer to that, but now you are spending money again. There are several article submission services out there that can submit your article to the various directories, for a reasonable fee. The advantage here is that you aren’t spending a ridiculous amount of time submitting the articles, but keep in mind that some of the better article directories won’t accept the automated submissions. The key here is to track what you, and check up on your articles to be sure they appear with all your links intact. This goes for whether you submit them yourself, or you have a submission service do it for you.

Ok, now for PPC click campaigns. These are pay-per-click campaigns that work exactly as the name implies. You pay when someone clicks on your website. They also have their good points and their drawbacks. They are wonderful for testing aspects of your web site, because in some campaigns you can have every other visitor go to a different version of your site, and track the conversion rate of different qualities of your page. They are good at simply bringing targeted visitors to your site. The drawbacks, however, are many, and I am not going to cover them here.

As you can see here, there are many different methods for generating traffic, and in some sense they can probably all fit into your strategy for generating sales. It is important, though, that you tailor each sales page or sales letter or squeeze page to the type of advertising you are running. You can have a great source of traffic but if you are ineffective at capturing either email information or the sale, you will not be productive. And each form of traffic requires a little different approach.

Another point here. Since there are so many different ways to generate traffic, which should you try, and should you try all of them? I suggest you choose a couple or three that you might feel comfortable with, or at least understand how they work. Also, do not try to use 25 different types of traffic the first month or two into this project. It is far better to choose two or three and focus on getting good at selling to that customer. It is so easy to get caught up in trying something new every single week, and never really making any money. Stick with a few, and master them.

Westly Lager is a success mentor and coach helping teach people how to work online. With Westly’s experience and expertise you can’t go wrong. See how Westly can help you today by visiting My Internet Business also checkout this My Internet Business Review article

Adopting a Local Search Strategy for Multi National Clients

05 2008 Thursday

By Jennifer Osborne in Featured

When you say “Local Market Strategy”, most people think of local as at the city level. In search that means Google Local, using Geographic delimiters in keywords, Local Directories, etc.

But for large enterprise sized clients, a local strategy is one for a particular country. Multi nationals typically are faced with the decision:

Are they going to have one overriding strategy for all markets

Are they going to have a local strategy (including different products, pricing, etc) for each market (country) that they play in.

and how this question is answered has a HUGE impact on your Search Strategy (at least it should).

Why is a Local Search Strategy Important?

Google gives preference towards local websites within the search results. Canadian companies get special treatment on .ca; Brit’s on .co.uk and recently American’s on .com.

As the search engine algorithms change, it is very likely that more weight will be given to local factors. Although it is currently very common to see a handful of large powerful sites dominating the results on a multitude of extensions, in the future it will become more difficult to rank in another country.

How does Google determines a websites nationality?

There are many factors that help the search engines to determine the nationality of a website:

1. the extension - is it a (.ca); (.co.uk); (.com.au); (.com); ect, etc.

2. Hosting - where is the site hosted?

The best way to be considered local to a particular extension is to either use that extension in your url or be hosted in that country.

Ask.com Search Engine - A Brief History

05 2008 Thursday

By Scott Buresh in Featured

As of this writing, there are five top Internet search engines: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and Ask.com, and while Google and Yahoo! get a lot of the press (particularly lately), the Ask.com search engine is a rather interesting engine that deserves a closer look. This article will cover some of the highlights in its 12-year history, from its start as Ask Jeeves to its innovations, as well as the most recent developments behind the scenes.

The Beginning

In 1996, “Ask Jeeves” was founded by David Warthen, who had founded EyeGames - a children’s video game company, and Garrett Gruener, a venture capitalist. At its start, the concept of the Ask.com search engine was to allow searchers to type questions in natural language in order to get results, rather than to type in a random string of keywords (although that would work as well). The Jeeves character, based on the butler in the Jeeves and Wooster books by P.G. Wodehouse, was designed as the company’s main identifier. (However, the company did not ask Wodehouse’s estate for permission to use this character and legal action was threatened, though the issue was later settled for an undisclosed amount.[1]) Jeeves was phased out in 2006 [2] in a humorous manner, with the engine saying he was retiring,[3] and the company was renamed simply Ask.com and the search engine was reborn.

Ask3D and New Innovations

In June 2007, Ask, still one of the top Internet search engines, launched “Ask3D.” Part of this new direction was to allow users to add “skins” - or customized images - to the Ask.com search engine home page. The 3D offering also meant that results would be customized based on the user’s search. This meant that, in a similar manner as Google’s Universal Search concept, a user’s search for a location would get not only pages about that location but also maps and details about it. If the user searched for music, he might also be able to listen to song clips or read news stories about the artist. In addition, the Ask.com search engine included a preview feature for its search results. When available, users can click on an icon of binoculars next to a result and see a small screen capture of that page. Plus, a new toolbar was added to the left-hand side of the page, giving searchers options for narrowing down a search.

Missteps

Ask isn’t shy about going after its main competitors - Google and Yahoo!, two of the top Internet search engines. In early 2007, the company ran a series of ads, primarily in England, without identifying itself as the entity behind those ads. The ads touted an “Information Revolution” and declared that Internet users needed more choices - for a short time, users searching on the Ask.com search engine for Google were given a link to information-revolution.org - an anti-Google site sponsored by Ask.[4] This initiative was not well received,[5]^,[6] as it was seen as attacking the very users it sought to attract.

Also, in mid-2007, the Ask.com search engine introduced “Ask Eraser.”[7] This was Ask.com’s response to searchers’ concerns about privacy and security breaches - a simple way to opt in and have one’s searches erased automatically. The site explains it by saying, “When AskEraser is enabled, your search activity will ordinarily be deleted from the Ask.com search engine servers within a number of hours.”[8] The concept is sound, but many bloggers [9] are not impressed.[10]

What’s Going On Today

Today, Ask is searching - pun intended - for a new direction as it tries to keep its small piece of the search engine pie or regain its state of being at least one of the top Internet search engines. Layoffs are happening, although the company is holding onto Teoma, the technology that powers the engine,[11] and the company is looking to focus on a specific subsection of searchers (women, although the company isn’t specifically saying this [12]) rather than to try to serve as a competitor to the other top Internet search engines, like Google and Yahoo!.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Ask.com search engine can hold onto its existing niche and/or expand its search engine market share. The company seems to be working on finding a direction and a focus, but it just hasn’t yet. I will update you in future articles as to what the status of Ask.com is and whether or not it has managed to remain a key player in the industry.

About the Author

Scott Buresh is the founder of Medium Blue, a search engine optimization company. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including MarketingProfs, ZDNet, SiteProNews, WebProNews, DarwinMag, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. He was also a contributor to The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Brown, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue has local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, DS Waters, and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world in 2006 and 2007 by PromotionWorld. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.