Advertising Online

admin Popularity: 1% [?] September 7th, 2008

Drive your dollar further by looking around for inexpensive advertising opportunities.

I was surprised to find that you can advertise directly with cnn money. The cpc action did not appear to be too high considering the quality and volume of traffic. If you have a product or service that would benefit from this exposure, it seemed like a no brainer to me.

It made me think about how many other class sites are out there, which could bring more targeted and relevant traffic to products and services I am offering. As a small business owner, it can sometimes seem overwhelming to deal with the nuances of online advertising (without wasting your money).

From my experience, research pays huge dividends and may even get you a few quality leads/sales at very reasonable prices.

I’ll be heading to all the major newspapers next to see what the current ad rates are and see if there are any bargains to be had!

Good luck in your advertising pursuits,

Popularity: 1% [?]

The White Rose

admin Popularity: 2% [?] September 6th, 2008

This has very little to do with marketing or SEO, however, it was such a compelling story, that I needed to share it with someone - to repeat it - and in some small way, let the burden of the words pass to others.

———————//————————

Author unknown.

On the last day before Christmas, I hurried to the supermarket to buy the remaining of gifts I didn’t manage to buy earlier.

When I saw all the people there, I started to complain to myself: ‘It is going to take forever here and I still have so many other place to go…’

Christmas really is getting more and more annoying every year. How I wish I could just lie down, go to sleep and only wake up after it…’

Nonetheless, I made my way to the toy section, and there I started to curse the prices, wondering if after all kids really play with such expensive toys.

While looking in the toy section, I noticed a small boy of about 5 years old, pressing a doll against his chest.

He kept on touching the hair of the doll and looked so sad. I wondered who was this doll for.

Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him: ‘Granny, are you sure I don’t have enough money?’

The old lady replied: ‘You know that you don’t have enough money to buy this doll, my dear.’
Then she asked him to stay here for 5 minutes while she went to look around. She left quickly.
The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.

Finally, I started to walk toward him and I asked him who he wanted to give this doll to.
It is the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for this Christmas. She was so sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.’

I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus will bring it to her, after all, and not to worry.
But he replied to me sadly. ‘No, Santa Claus cannot bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mother so that she can give it to her when she goes there.’

His eyes were so sad while saying this. ‘My sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mummy will also go to see God very soon, so I thought that she could bring the doll with her to give it to my sister’

My heart nearly stopped.

The little boy looked up at me and said: “I told daddy to tell mummy not to go yet. I asked him to wait until I come back from the supermarket”

Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me “I also want mummy to take this photo with her so that she will not forget me.”

“I love my mummy and I wish she doesn’t have to leave me but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister”

Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.

I quickly reached for my wallet and took a few notes and said to the boy. “What if we checked again, just in case you have enough money?’

“Ok” he said “I hope that I have enough.” I added some of my money to his without him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.

The little boy said: “Thank you God for giving me enough money”

Then he looked at me and added “I asked yesterday before I slept for God to make sure I have enough money to buy this doll so that mummy can give it to my sister. He heard me’

“I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mummy, but I didn’t dare to ask God too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and the white rose.’

“You know, my mummy loves white roses”

A few minutes later, the old lady came again and I left with my trolley.
I finished my shopping in a totally different state from when I started. I couldn’t get the little boy out of my mind.

Then I remembered a local newspaper article 2 days ago, which mentioned of a drunk man in a truck who hit a car where there was one young lady and a little girl.

The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-assisting machine, because the young lady would not be able to get out of the coma.

Was this the family of the little boy?

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the newspaper that the young lady had passed away.

I couldn’t stop myself and went to buy a bunch of white roses and I went to the mortuary where the body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and make last wish before burial.

She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest.

I left the place crying, feeling that my life had been changed forever. The love that this little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine. And in a fraction of a second, a drunk man had taken all this away from him.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Google Chrome Hero or Zero

admin Popularity: 3% [?] September 3rd, 2008

Google is entering the browser market with the launch of Google Chrome. A light weight browser that will create more productivity at the expense of lesser ranked sites. The browser is in beta stage and therefore may advance or morph into something different that the trial version.

The alarming part is when you go to type in a url it will make a suggestion (it is unclear whether this is based on an algorithm that is popularity based or on your prior searches). What you could expect from a marketing view point is that your generic searches will go down as more and more people type the domain name directly to the url line rather than use the traditional search feature.

Google are not the only company heading down this path, but they are the largest ad serving network to build a browser. The logic is overwhelming from business case. If you want more revenue, make sure your paying customers are always at the top of the queue.

For small commercial retailers who were hoping to build a website and have people simply find them based on generic searches, this browser could spell disaster. Particularly if you consider that most small businesses still have no idea on how to get a website up and functional let alone master the art of ranking well.

Ordinarily, content is king and this should not matter. The reality is that marketers and “seo experts” have worked out you do not need the best or most relevant product to be number one - just a fat bank balance and/or some well chosen words in the right places (oversimplified I agree - but not too far from the truth).

Try it for yourself if you have a windows machine - you can judge the hero or zero status for yourself @ google.com/chrome

Popularity: 3% [?]

Build it and they will come

admin Popularity: 4% [?] August 30th, 2008

WRONG - Many people believe that conducting online commerce is simply about putting up a website and watching the money roll in………

Of course action is better than procrastination, but the real trick is conversion.

Check list:

Viable product or service that is suitable for onilne commerce?
Informative and useful content as judged by your market audience?
Presentable web package (does not have to be expensive, but certainly should not turn people away in the first few milliseconds)?
Orderly presentation of offerings (logical progression of explanations and theme for product or service - thing story building - you need a beginning, a middle and an ending/close)?
Reliable and fast hosting service (fast means it loads without frustrating your viewers - particularly when going from product page to cart views)?
Marketing campaign (where are you advertising, how are you advertising and what are the costs)?
Measuring conversions and tweaking your ad campaign?
Following up on sales, requesting feedback and making adjustments to your approach?

There’s is a lot to do, and it doesn’t have to be daunting or time consuming, but it does have to be done! You have to find a way to get the traffic and then convert that traffic to sales at an economic cost (no point paying $10,000 for adword campaigns and receiving $8,000 in product sales).

Personally some of the most economic advertising you can do is offline. Try Radio for $30 a spot……………. depending on your audience requirement and geographical influence you could do very well with a $1000.00 budget in a well populated area.

Other sources of traffic include doing your own youtube movie with your website across the front of it (little letters please and not spammy videos that make you throw up!).

Anyway, the point of this article is to say don’t leave the final part off your agenda - chase the traffic. Building it and they will come philosophies only lead to disappointment and frustration.

Popularity: 4% [?]

How will a global recession effect your online business?

admin Popularity: 8% [?] August 20th, 2008

What measures are you taking to ensure your daily activities don’t end up in the wash with mortgages and stock certificates? Being optimistic, I had a tough time today. Someone sent me the link to Nouriel Roubini’s NY Times interview. It rocked me to the core.

I had not heard of Mr Roubini until this morning. Four hours and 120 articles later, I felt like a mouse stuck in kitty litter. I’ve never been one to enjoy horror stories - but if I was voting for one, this would be it.

For most of my working life, I’ve not had to worry about economists. I’ve never needed one to tell me when things were bad, and generally never thought about them when things were good.

After all, what difference does an economist make to my house that is worth 50% less than 12 months ago? What difference does an economist make to my business that had sales slashed by 65% in the space of 3 months? I only have to look in the eyes of real people - people who have lost jobs, houses, families and their sanity. If I dared to look, the mirror would tell its own story.

Today was different. There are levels of complacency we afford ourselves, that generally self-justify our actions and thoughts. Paramount to survival is a willingness and desire to never give up and always believe in yourself. Never have the words of one man, been able to captivate my attention in such a grave way.

We all know when the party is over, someone has to stay and clean up the mess. Is your online business ready for a global recession? What will change? What will need to change? What new opportunities will there be? Can one economist be right and 100 wrong?

A comment in one thread read words to the effect of “When you realize you are in a hole, it is wise to stop digging.”

Complacency is the evil child of success. If we are not constantly testing our failure theories and understanding what the success drivers were, we succumb to the serenade of tunes that reinforce the habits of yesterday as if they were a cast iron blue print for tomorrow. The status quo and sacred cows that line the tombstones in “Corporateville” are still holding hands in unison for everything they did right.

Make your own judgments regarding the future and how you have to prepare. Rivkin said it best “The downside pain is greater than the upside gain.”

Popularity: 8% [?]

Blog World Expo - 98 million people this year?

admin Popularity: 9% [?] August 19th, 2008

If you are into blogging, marketing or PR, then make sure you don’t miss the 2008 Blogging and Media Expo in Las Vegas next month!

You can still save 25% on admission if you register by August 22, 2008 - Three days away - so hurry!

According to the organizers this years monster event will include more than 50 siminars.

If you are not sure what so many experts can do for your online business performance, choose a new career.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Perception & Value

admin Popularity: 36% [?] June 1st, 2008

kissing_beach5 copy.jpg

This is totally off topic, and I apologize in advance.

I will also provide a warning to anyone that may be offended by borderline rude jokes. I don’t consider this rude at all, but for the benefit of doubt, do not read on if you feel you could be offended.

Sometimes we need to take a break from the hectic daily activities of being who we are. People have reminded me often enough to stop and smell the roses once in a while. There’s no point racing like crazy towards goals and aspirations, arriving at the destination, and having no recollection of the journey.

Today’s post is about perception and value. It is off topic, yet in a strange way when I read it this morning, I knew it was something that could brighten at least one person’s day.

It reminded me of negotiating and the importance of understanding what is motivating others in the negotiation. By understanding the other person’s motivation we have a chance at extracting full value from the equation. Enough serious talk here is today’s post. Enjoy - or stop reading now.

This is a joke that is supposed to bring you luck. I did not write it, and nor is the original author known. You are welcome to copy it and send it on as you see fit.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

An elderly woman walked into a Canadian Bank one morning with a purse full of money. She wanted to open a savings account and insisted on talking to the president of the Bank because, she said, she had a lot of money.

After many lengthy discussions (after all, the client is always right) an employee took the elderly woman to the president’s office.

The president of the Bank asked her how much she wanted to deposit. She placed her purse on his desk and replied, ‘$165,000′. The president was curious and asked her how she had been able to save so much money. The elderly woman replied that she made bets.

The president was surprised and asked, ‘What kind of bets?’

The elderly woman replied, ‘Well, I bet you $25,000 that your testicles are square.’

The president started to laugh and told the woman that it was impossible to win a bet like that.

The woman never batted an eye. She just looked at the president and said, ‘Would you like to take my bet?’

‘Certainly’, replied the president. ‘I bet you $25,000 that my testicles are not square.’

‘Done’, the elderly woman answered. ‘But given the amount of money involved, if you don’t mind I would like to come back at 10 o’ clock tomorrow morning with my lawyer as a witness.’ ‘No problem’, said the president of the Bank confidently.

That night, the president became very nervous about the bet and spent a long time in front of the mirror examining his testicles, turning them this way and that, checking them over again and again until he was positive that no one could consider his testicles square, and reassuring himself that there was no way he could lose the bet.

The next morning at exactly 10 o’clock the elderly woman arrived at the president’s office with her lawyer and restated the $25,000 bet made the day before that the president’s testicles were square.

The president confirmed that the bet was the same as the one made the day before. Then the elderly woman asked him to drop his pants etc. so that she and her lawyer could see clearly.

The president was happy to oblige.

The elderly woman came closer so she could see better and asked the president if she could touch them. ‘Of course’, said the president. ‘Given the amount of money involved, you should be 100% sure.’

The elderly woman did so with a little smile. Suddenly the president noticed that the lawyer was banging his head against the wall. He asked the elderly woman why he was doing that and she replied, ‘Oh, it’s probably because I bet him $100,000 that around 10 o’clock in the morning I would be holding the balls of the President of the Bank!’

The origin of this Canadian story is unknown but it brings luck to everyone to whom it is sent. Feel free to send it on - if nothing else it is a light hearted story with a message. “Understand the art of negotiation.”

Popularity: 36% [?]

Estibot!

admin Popularity: 46% [?] May 16th, 2008

The most useful domain name evaluation tool on the internet today - Estibot!

If you are looking for a tool that really stands on its own when it comes to evaluating domain names - do yourself a favor and visit Estibot.

The developer has really put himself in the shoes of domain name searchers and built a package that captures many features of other tools, but does it all from one location. In recent months more features have been added and you can choose your level of participation based on membership level - including a free version.

I have use the free version as a reference point for many domain name purchases and/or research projects. Valuing domain names is a hard process to automate but the Estibot equation has been tweaked against domain sales (at least the publicly available sale information), and does a great job at getting close enough to be more than useful. I would not base purchases solely on the Estibot valuation, however it’s a great starting position to quickly weed out any absolute “dogs” (You know what I mean! Those names that you register or purchase after a bottle of wine or a dozen beers).

The keyword information is must have detail if you are serious about capitalizing on well structured keyword rich domain names. Finding good keyword dense domain names for registration fee is becoming so hard that you could waste literally days trying to sort through one niche in order to come up with an available “brand rich” name. Those days are gone if you subscribe to the Estibot pro level membership.

Anyway, I like the tool so much it deserved its own post. Read the estibot blog to get the whole story. Its a great read and inspiring in many ways.

Congratulations to the developer - may your success be equivalent to the many people you have helped.

Popularity: 46% [?]

Digital Marketing and Reality TV

admin Popularity: 46% [?] May 12th, 2008

Digital Marketing and Reality TV have much in common.

Capturing an audience’s enthusiasm and inspiring them to act is at the core of both. The internet is an interactive reality medium.

More viewers = more “potential” value created.

The wonderful thing about digital marketing is that it does not have to cost very much to get right. You simply have to put yourself in the shoes of your audience and anticipate what is going to “float their boat.”

For many years, I have personally subscribed to the AIDA theory. Notwithstanding the thousands of books on marketing and business, AIDA is the simplest concept to keep in mind when approaching marketing, sales and branding exercises.

For those who have not heard of it before, or need a refresher lesson, AIDA in it’s simplest form encapsulates all marketing, and is particularly relevant for internet marketing - even though it was coined long before internet marketing was even a concept.

Simply put:

A = Attention {get the audience to look}
I = Interest {hold their interest - e.g. longer than the 2 seconds it takes for a person to visit your webspace and leave}
D = Desire {making the audience want more}
A = Action {involving the audience, enticing them to act - e.g. reality TV - phone in votes, webspace - interactive features, inspiring to purchase a product etc}

How does AIDA, digital marketing and Reality TV come together to give you an edge in online business pursuits?

In summary, making money online , requires human interaction in real time. Having the prettiest dress at the dance, does not guarantee you will pick up the most dances, but it will give you a captivated audience. Ultimately success will be determined by the whole package you are offering (no matter how large or small).

People want to know they are dealing with “genuine intent.” Whether for entertainment, information and/or purchases, the criteria is being sorted with increasing laser like focus - people are getting up the digital curve fast, and are starting to narrow in on the things they want to see/buy. Digital Marketing could be termed “Reality Marketing” (or real time marketing).

ps. Google Keywords Tool update: After posting the article about Google Keywords Tool, it looks like the cpc estimates have been removed. It is still a great traffic tool etc, but the removal of cpc information will result in looking for that type of information elsewhere (try spyfu to start).

Popularity: 46% [?]

Keyword Marketing

admin Popularity: 51% [?] April 30th, 2008

Let me get straight to the point. If you are using keyword marketing to attract visitors and optimize your SEO effort, then you probably have your “favorite” keyword search engine, or keyword generation tool?

There are plenty around - keyword country, wordtracker and some free versions that are pretty decent as well.

This article is centered primarily on the Google Keyword Tool. It houses some real firing power if you are trying to quickly work out which keywords to center your articles on, or which keywords are best to use.

Whilst it does not give a definitive number of searches, it does give you are relative idea of which keywords generate more interest. If you also use the drop down box to add views, you can get an idea of the cost per click (cpc) that certain words are attracting and the relative competition for each.

I use a combined formula when looking for which keywords might do better. For instance if I’m looking at running an Adwords campaign then I might be more interested in finding the most searches for the least amount of competition (and therefore most of the time, but not always, low cpc rates). On the other hand if I am running adsense on a site and want to attract the highest advertising dollars, the I run the reverse and sort the columns by highest cpc with sufficient search volume.

From there I look at producing relevant and informative articles or products that use those keywords. It’s not rocket science and it’s not that time consuming, but if you do it diligently and professionally, you will increase your overall return on investment.

I am consistently amazed that some keywords I thought were OK, have no search value, yet others are through the roof. Pays to experiment and do your homework.

I have no issue with using the paid keyword search tools either, but I like the simplicity and access of the Google Keyword Tool as a quick reference. If you can have more tools in the kit bag, and call on them when you need them, then you won’t be looking for a silver bullet when things go off the rails!

All the best!

Popularity: 51% [?]

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