Is it possible?

Yes! It’s possible. I have been doing online marketing for almost 10 years now and although the methods have changed significantly, the process remains the same. As long as one builds a site for the user, it will achieve great results. Websites that are created without targeting a group of users or an audience do not succeed. That was one of the major reasons of the dotcom disaster in 2000. Again, quality wins while quantity loses.

How do you do it?

I think the most important factors are content and dedication. Content is king and this is not the first time you’ve heard it. If you go back on our posts and read our articles on the website, you will see this term many times. Content is king, however it’s not easy. It’s pretty tough to come up with original, unique and fresh content consistently. That’s why dedication is also critical. It’s essential that our clients get a very good understanding of what’s necessary to achieve great results on Google and other major search engines. We enforce that rule; as a matter of fact we have dropped many clients who have not complied with our rules for content … yes, we’ve actually fired clients who cannot or will not make the necessary commitments, particularly in the key area of content.

What does it take?

One word … patience. In most cases, it is not years of patience. We give a time frame of 6 months to a year. We have seen unbelievable results within 3 months of signing a client. However, if you just had your website created and want to rank top 10 for “Mortgage”, it will take a lot of content, dedication and patience. Does that make sense?

Is that enough?

It should make sense. It also makes sense not to put all your eggs in one basket. At the end of the day, Google rankings are something we have no control over. We do not take chances, so we always offer our clients alternate online marketing strategies such as Pay per Click Advertising and Affiliate Marketing. We focus on conversions and ROI. We advise our clients to build strong relationships with their clients and we certainly strive to do the same with our clients.

By Duran Inci

How much does it cost to advertise in the yellow pages, on the radio or on TV? If you already do not have the answer, it costs thousands of dollars. Of course, in all advertising and marketing, there are no guarantees. There are just too many factors such as demographics, audience, income level, education etc. However, all marketers know that the best advertisement is a targeted one. If I’m looking for a wedding gown, and you show me mail order brides from Russia, as appealing as it might sound, I will not take the offer.

Marketing for E-commerce sites has the same concept. It must be targeted or you cannot make money. Be aware that there are thousands of competitors online and they’re all trying to sell a product. You have around 5-20 seconds to spark an interest for the potential customer because there are hundreds of alternatives. I know I must sound very pessimistic. However, certain factors will win you the game.

Reliability
You have to prove that your website is reliable and you will be in business 2 years from now. Customers are picky but, believe it or not, they want to order from you, avoiding the hassle of looking for another reliable site. So, help them out. You should have an easy access 800 number and your address published on your website. Also create a sincere About Us page to show the user who you are and are a serious and reputable business.

Security
Online fraud costs more than one billion dollars to merchants, buyers and to the Economy domestically in 2007. Identity theft and credit card fraud is at an all time high. So how can your site be more secure and provide the needed peace of mind?

Make sure that you have an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) installed to make sure that the private information entered by the user such as an address, phone number and credit card is secure. Check your website for security issues to avoid access from hackers. There are a couple of services online that you can use such as Hacker Safe.

If a fraudster happens to stop by your site to use a stolen credit card, let them know that you do not tolerate fraud. Display a message on the checkout that states something similar to, “All fraud orders will be reported to Law Enforcement Authorities.”

Statistics

Install Google Analytics on your site and look out for flags. Review all your traffic and where it comes from. Check landing pages, enter and exit points and the most popular pages of your site. This is a key to success. Review pages with a high exit rate and find out why users do not like those specific pages. Make some changes and test to optimize and improve them.

Relationships

Build strong relationships with both your vendors and customers. Working with vendors will enable you to stay on top of specials or discounts so you can attract more buyers. If PS3 is being released, try everything to offer it for sale; customers remember sites with specials and first time releases.

Customer Service

This is probably the most important factor. You must have a clear return and shipping policy accessible by the user at all times. Try to offer a reasonable return policy; this is one of the factors that affect conversions the most. Reply to requests and emails from the customers promptly.

ROI

Know exactly how much money you are making from sales and what your expenses are for those sales. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Do not forget, you have to invest money to make money.

by Duran Inci

There are 5 reasons people actually buy something:

1. Money – make more or save more.
2. Time – save time.
3. Convenience – make it easy to use, easy to do.
4. Pleasure or Confidence – enjoyment and / or security – peace of mind, sense of well being.
5. Reliability – assurance, warranties, guarantees of customer satisfaction. A track record. References.

While your products and services need to be presented with specifics that yield any combination of the above ‘reasons to buy,” your website, in and of itself, must hold true to this principle as well. Website visitors are impatient by nature and must realize, almost instantaneously, that there is one or more reasons to buy and therefore stay on the page and explore the site further. Do you offer a value position that is economically based? Do you increase efficiency or save time? Is the site easy to understand and navigate? Does it make sense? Do you provide a pleasurable experience? Is it secure? Is it reliable? Do you clearly show your commitment to customer satisfaction and that you stand behind your products?

There is content and then there is content. Are you really speaking to the visitor in the language of the visitor; that is, are you giving them reasons to justify the click that got them there and are you compelling enough to keep them there and lead them to a favorable buying decision.

After all, what is the job of your website?

By Arthur Cooper

But where are the sales? Obviously, we are not talking about a shopping cart or ecommerce site here because it is the online purchase which is the ultimate job of the site. All you need to do in this case is to execute the order i.e. follow through via shipping, good customer relations management to insure quality customer satisfaction.

However, when we are talking about leads and plenty of them, AND you are not seeing the expected increase, you have a serious problem. You’ve made the necessary commitments to the lead generating process.

Have you made the same commitments to the sales process? Consider each of the following:

• Are your sales people getting the leads?

• Do you have a good lead tracking system?

• Do you have an established sales process?

• Do you track results?

• Do you use a Sales Contact Manager?

• How long between sales lead generation and initial contact?

• Are you hiring the best sales people?

• Are you keeping your best sales people?

• Are you replacing your underperforming sales people?

• How well are your sales people trained?

• Do you make sales calls with your sales people?

• When was the last time you had a sales meeting?

• Do you review the prospect lists of each of your sales people?

• Is there an action plan associate with each prospect?

You’ve achieved high visibility through Search Engine Marketing. The online conversion strategy is working as you are getting leads that you have never received before. Don’t let this financial and professional commitment go to waste by ignoring the “blocking and tackling” aspects of the sales process and sales management. SEO and PPC along with excellent conversion strategies gives you the golden opportunity of leveraging your new online advantage.

Opportunity is knocking …

Spammers are people too. They have monetary needs like everyone else from a purse snatcher to a kidnapper. They act in a way that has become an annoyance to millions of people. It is estimated that 80% of the email traffic that is received around the world is spam. That is a lot. It cripples the internet, and wastes millions of business dollars, and lots of time.

Let’s dig deeper into a spammers world, and we will find out that what lies ahead is psychologically and mathematically devious. It’s the true un-filtered world of the marketers and a numbers game, that when played long enough, you can win.

Becoming a spammer takes tons of research; I mean to be a real good spammer making $50,000 to $100,000 per year. You have to find the proper software and that software is not mentioned or listed anywhere a Google spider can access. This spam program exists only on the Invisible Web; underground websites that cannot be accessed unless the url address is directly typed, and have no trace of their existence with the visible world. In fact, even if I told you the name of the software, you would not be able to find it online, no search results would appear and the company that developed it doesn’t even have a web address. A quick note, there is a difference between Google/Yahoo knowing you exist and not indexing you, and them not knowing you exist completely. That is where this invisible web lies, in the unknown, uncharted waters.

The main reason for the secrecy is that there are huge amounts of anti-spamming groups and government officials who would love to know the name of the company and their products.

Getting to this invisible web is quite a feat on its own, but then getting the software is a different challenge. I don’t want to go into the details of how to get the spam software, but understand, once you got it, you will be able to harvest the true power of the biggest spammers.

Now, the spam game is a game of numbers. Like boiler room cold calling; the more calls you make, the more likely you will make a sale. Spammers play with very very little and continuously dwindling numbers. A rate of .005% to .001% is considered a great success. That’s why they have computers setup to send millions upon millions of emails a day.

Look at these numbers:

1,000,000 emails (sent out) at .005% click through rate = 5,000 potential leads.
If you take that and put a normal 3% to 5% conversion rate, you get 150 to 250 people that will end up buying your product.

Here is the interesting part. If you get 150 to 250 people who are definitely going to buy your product, you aren’t going to be selling bubble gum at 5 cents a piece. Did you know that viagra, cialis and other pharmaceutical products affiliate programs, pay from $35 to $150 PER sale?

That means that a spammer has the potential to make $5250 to $37,500 for that batch of 1 million emails. Now the reality of it is that big dogs in spamming are making from $5,000 to $100,000 a week and sending out 20 to 40 million emails a week.

If you simply look at the financial opportunity, it is huge, but with a huge risk. Some of these treats are death threats, jail, fines and being hated by everybody. But as you can see from your inbox, lots of spammers have chosen that life.

Now I am not here to condone spammers and their ways, since it is the equivalent of condoning drug dealers. If there was no demand, the suppliers would dry up.

So how can we stop spam? How can we eliminate demand from an already unwanted product? We can stop clicking on emails which we receive that are spam. Spammers continue to spam, because people continue to click on their emails, and drive them business. If all the spam emails were simply ignored by EVERYONE, the spammers would stop spamming.

We have to educate people and use better email programs like Thunderbird with SpamAssassin which directly filters the spam into the trash and/or deletes it. The day that spammer’s financial numbers go down is the day thay they will be gone just like the train robbers of the late 19th century.I would have used pirates as an example, but apparently piracy is up by 10% in 2007, go figure.

It’s no secret that I’m no big fan of Microsoft, but I didn’t always dislike them. The first computer I ever used was an Apple, back in 1992 in elementary school. Fast forward a couple of years to Windows 3.1and the first computer my parent’s bought for our family was a PC. I was fascinated with it. You can press a button, click here and there and blam; things would happen.

Then we got AOL, and oh man, I remember thinking, “This is great, all the information of the world at my finger tips”. This was around 1995, and I recall thinking, “This internet thing, it could change the way the world communicates forever.”

I guess I was right, but there was a problem when I attempted to download the Internet Browser, it wouldn’t let me download it for some reason. A couple of months later, after an AOL upgrade, I finally got onto the Real Internet, past the AOL community and started to understand the true power of the internet.

I went to my first couple of websites and fell in love with GamePro.com. It was around this time that I noticed that certain websites required another type of browser called Netscape (Grandfather of FireFox). So for the first couple of years there, you had to go back and forth with Netscape and Internet Explorer. Thatwas really annoying. I mean I was here, only 10 years old, craving new knowledge and discovering new stuff and I was being road-blocked by incompatibility.

I eventually started learning html to create my own website and started learning programming. That’s when I learned about all the limitations that are imposed on a coder when having to create a website which works on two different browsers. Thatannoyed me even more. There were no standards then, even though Netscape dominated the Real Internet.

Fast forward a couple of years and Windows 98 was released. I remember running the Paint program one day and creating this cool drawing which I didn’t save of course and then running into my First BLUE SCREEN OF Death. What The Hell is this? I had to restart my computer, and lost my drawing. That day, I lost all faith in computers and started playing video games for awhile.

A couple of years later XP was released and that got me hooked back into computers. I wasn’t really loyal to Microsoft but hey I had Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and continuing up the step is the newest thing XP. By this time I had started learning C++ coding in school, and being self taught Visual Basics at home. I started creating programs that would communicate across the internet and ran into several problems compatibility problems.

By this time there was a standard in html, and I simply gave up on coding programs for a specific operating system, since there where so many still around. People still have 95, and 98, and XP. Then 2000ME and NT was released. So I gave up and took an interest in the internet which was becoming more and more stable.

Now if you notice, Microsoft started to represent itself to me as a company that started to expand into too many directions and lost focus. It represented disorganization and this started to annoy me. It already caused me to lose interest in application programming and made me switch to internet programming, wait for the day applications will be driven from the internet and get me to my programming roots. I mean, the internet was great, but coding C++ programming and learning machine language was more exciting than coding bold and italic. They took that away from me.

Now come full circle, finally off the Microsoft operating system, I realize that Microsoft is not the problem. When reading the article on how other developers are leaving in frustration, it’s not Microsoft’s fault. They represent the lack of disciple necessary to create a functioning system that all users can understand and control. Innovation is lost and mediocre performance is accepted. All major companies get to this point. IBM did, Microsoft is, and one day Google will.

When a company, or project loses touch and focuses on the core goal and started entering new fields, its core functionality suffers. When this happens, buggy applications, programs or even general dysfunction arises. This is what happened from Windows 3.1 to XP. It created more complex problems as it went along. It was simply coding onto old coding.

I remember when I first got onto Mac OS X (Feb 2007). It was my first time with the computer experience of Apple since 1992. I had been on Microsoft and spent some time on the Dark Side of Linux since. Anyways, I didn’t know whether my docs would work, I was terrified.But by this time, I hated Microsoft and their 3rd rated products so much that I was willing to try anything.

I could now believe my experience. I mean when I opened a program, there was almost no loading time. I could open any file run any program and it worked. I could even open the new .docx files and was able to read them in TextEdit. I mean the thing just worked. I didn’t know that there was an experience like this available.

Around this time Vista had been released, and flopped like I hoped it would. I feel sorry for those with the bad taste in their mouth. I remember when I bought my own MacBook Pro Laptop, I thouhtto myself, “Free at Last”. But I still felt sorry for everybody else without this experience.

To make a very long story short, when I come across a website that is old,outdated and is not compliant with standards, it makes me think of Microsoft. Even when I come across programs that are coded using old techniques, it gives me that sick feel. I get that cringe because that means somewhere in the world, someone is not going to be able to view that page or run that program. It reminds me of that 10 year old boy who lost his drawing and other countless programs created that could not run properly.

So I have pledged to myself to make sure that anyone experiencing any of my websites, programs or any project I’m involved with, would be able to experience it like it was supposed to be experienced. That’s why I obsess over standards. That’s why I spend an hour fixing a compatibility program on a web page which a regular web designer would not even think of and ignore. I want everyone to experience what it is to go to the internet and have something work. What was stolen from me by Microsoft was eventually given back to me through Apple.

Every owner, manager or decision maker wants to select the best solution for his business. However, sometimes that might not be an easy task. There are certain points that must be evaluated thoroughly before making a decision. Search Engine Optimization takes lots of time, effort and patience. I believe it’s in the best interest of companies to outsource online marketing to reliable firms with years of expertise. Here are some very logical reasons why;

1- SEO takes time and money especially if you are in a very competitive industry. (Real estate, mortgage, pharmaceutical just to name a few)
2- Hiring someone to do in-house SEO might take a long time. SEO is not a one man job in 90% of the cases. SEO that will yield results require a team of experts with focus on the many sub-specialties involved.
3- Outsourcing SEO or PPC Management to a proven marketing firm will enable your company and employees to benefit from many years of tried and true experience as well as being at the cutting edge of new marketing developments.
4- Internet marketing expertise is rarely found inside a company to begin with.  Finding one inside or outside the company is fraught with pitfalls and hurdles requiring a great deal of time and expense.
5- It’s just plain risky

So, if it’s so necessary to outsource online marketing, what do you look for in an Online Marketing Consultant?

1- Look for a minimum of 10+ years of staff experience.
2- Ask a lot of questions; get to know them and their best practices.
3- Ask for references; if they’re serious about what they do, they will give them to you. Ignore companies who seem hesitant to give you references.  One of the best references are the actual Google results; did they share high rankings for competitive keywords for sites they provide internet marketing for?
4- Ask about customer service and support. Make sure it’s a company you can call and reach.
5- Do not get stuck on rankings; Rankings bring you traffic but they do not bring you sales or conversions. Look for a company that emphasizes ROI and conversions.
6- Try to search for a pay-per-performance model; that means if you get results, they make more money and you both win.
7- Beware of packages; SEO cannot be packaged into number of links and directory submissions. It requires a lot more effort than that. Beware of packaged offers.
8- Beware of over-promises; SEO is not an overnight process. Beware of any company that promises you top 3 ranks in a certain period of time. Nobody that knows SEO can possibly promise or project that. Select a company that sets reasonable expectations.

Written By Duran Inci

But why was this a blessing for Microsoft? Firstly, it would have been a mistake. These are two companies that have made mostly bad decisions when it comes to online success and find themselves as progressively distant also-rans to the new sheriff in town … The Google. The companies would have had major culture shock going in many directions. Microsoft has yet another opportunity to more effectively plan and invest in a new strategy to offer a fresh, new and unique alternative to Google. Google is potentially vulnerable to vertically-based search engines that, if developed upon to provide significant advantages for the online community vs. the “all-world” model of Google could begin to eat away at Google dominance. Consider, for example, a great search engine specific to real estate or specific to entertainment or even more specific like tv, radio or satellite radio. What if Microsoft can find the best industry experts in these niche areas or verticals and design and develop a truly unique search experience that is more relevant, more entertaining … just plain better than the 800 pound gorilla? Why Microsoft … because they have the bucks. Do they have the commitment? Do they have the vision? Do they have the guts to start over and really innovate rather than follow … they have always followed; consider MSDOS vs PC-DOS, Windows vs. MacOS, MSN vs AOL, MSN vs. Google, Xbox vs. Sony, Nintendo et al. They have always followed. Are they ready to finally lead?

So, what does this all mean to you? It’s simple. Focus on Google and use a professional Search Engine Optimization Company to generate high rankings for your important keywords. Hire a Professional Internet Marketing Company to bring all the specialties and subspecialties to the table to get your company where you really want to be. Target Google and you will do just fine with all of the other search engines. The fact is, no matter what they are called, Google, Yahoo et al, it will always be about RELEVANCE and if you design the content of your site towards that aim, you will always do well.

The interested party who we will call Mr. Prospect was partnering with a few other gentlemen to sell consumer-based household items that are clearly highly competitive i.e. there are over 30 million competing pages for many of the important keywords he shared with me.

Before I called him the first time I did some quick research on the site and found that it was just under construction … however I had to shake my head as I also noticed below the fold a long section of white-on-white massive keyword stuffing … this is the oldest trick in the book and can get Mr. Prospect delisted from the search engines.

When calling him, I pointed it out gently but with some authority and he indicated that he would talk with the web designer about this. We left it at that.

Today I called him and we more fully discussed his project, his objectives and where an online strategy fits in. I must say that I genuinely feel sorry for the man. He and his partners quit their jobs and are counting on this new online business to “take them to the promised land.” What’s worse is he is getting some horrible advice from whoever he is dealing with. Besides keyword stuffing, he is being sold “packages” … i.e. 150 backlinks for $8,000 in 4 months, social networking for $xxxx and so on. I know where this is going … another casualty of search engine marketers who are not focused on results but focused on certain services that they can bill for and perform; packages. What’s missing? RESULTS! What this uninformed consumer does not know is that these packages are not focused on results; and with just a little research on my part, I can guarantee him that putting it all on the pass line or at the race track is probably money better spent.

So, I did only what I could do and that is point out some of what he is missing … To give him some plain talk and some free consulting about the realities of SEO … that it is not cheap, it requires patience, and it requires a major commitment towards the steady stream of content. I could tell he’s never heard this before. I know he did not want to hear it because he is being told that he can do it for a few thousand dollars. I even shared with him some results that we are able to achieve with our clients.

And regarding keyword stuffing … I asked him if he had asked his website designer about that. He told me the website designer told him that he was using new technology that makes it impossible for Google to detect this. This pretty much sums it up in my estimation. Mr. Prospect wants to believe and he is ignorant to the facts; he also seems ok with at least one form of trickery. What you have here is a pretty desperate and ignorant consumer being taken advantage of by an SEO company that is just trying to sell packages; looking for sales and not clients. Speaking strictly sales, I probably just wasted about 45 minutes speaking with Mr. Prospect. However as a consultant, and someone who genuinely wants to help someone, I can only hope that he heeds my advice, reads the material I have provided on our website and reevaluates his objectives and his budget.

What is surely the case is this … many of our existing clients came to Optimum7 after a similar  experience that it looks like Mr. Prospect is about to have. Those that do the research and really get the facts about Search Engine Marketing such as is contained on our website can eliminate this costly and painful step.